Josh McGrath: Sports Superstar
by Blackrose715378
Summary: How would life go if one little thing had happened differently? Finally finished - thanks to everyone who stayed with this 3
1. Chapter 1

Josh McGrath groaned as he examined the paper his history teacher had just handed back to him. With a big "F" at the top, the essay seemed to have more red marks than the black letters he had actually written.

"I'm beginning to think that history isn't your thing."

Josh leaned back in his chair. "You trying to tell me you did any better, Costas?"

Pete waved his substantially longer "C" paper at him. "Some of us have time to do things that don't involve defying gravity."

Josh rolled his eyes and crumpled up his paper. Hardly looking, he tossed it into the garbage can. Getting up to leave, he was stopped by a loud throat-clearing noise.

"Mr. McGrath, why don't you grace me with your presence over her?"

With a loud sigh, the younger man looked at his watch and rolled his eyes. "I have to be at a park opening in 20 minutes."

"Humor me."

On the drive over to N-Tek, Josh practiced in his mind how exactly he was going to tell his dad that he was dropping out of college. It was summer semester- not during the school year- so his absence would probably go unnoticed. He sighed. It shouldn't be that difficult to tell the CEO of a sports company that he was going to focus on pursuing his life as a sports superstar…right?

He got up to the gate to the parking garage, then abruptly turned the car around. He needed more time to think. And why not wait until his dad was out of work? It was five in the afternoon then- shouldn't be too much longer. Parking instead by the side of the road, he got out and walked over to a big tree a few yards from what he supposed was a gardening shed. The shade was a nice escape from the June day's heat, and somewhere between thinking about what he'd say and Jeff's reaction to it, he fell asleep.

His cell phone woke him once, but seeing that the caller was only his girlfriend Laura Chen, he didn't bother picking it up. Drifting back to dreams of success and glory, he was completely unaware when heavy feet in metal boots ran past him.


	2. Chapter 2

Dr. Roberto Martinez didn't have many friends. Well, if only humans were being counted, he actually didn't have *any* friends. He'd always been young for where he was in life, and over the years he'd gotten used to being lonely.

As he packed up his last crate of lab equipment, his heart felt heavy. He had gotten so far in the last year. He had his own research- his nanotech- and it had been going great. Everything had gone perfectly in the testing trials on machinery, which had been a pretty cool unexpected perk, but in order to prove the research valid, he had needed to prove that the nanomachines could bond with human tissue.

Of course no one was willing to volunteer for such a trial- god only knew what would happen if it didn't work- but he kept hoping that somehow he would find a way to prove his research. He knew it could help somebody.

That evening he had been proven wrong. A break-in had occurred at his lab. The intruder had gotten away with a sample of the probes and development information and had smashed the holding tank as well. Two N-Tek agents had gotten caught up in the pool of nanotech solution that had been spilled when the container broke. While Dr. Martinez had felt a ray of hope upon reading this in the report- maybe he had test subjects after all- the next sentence dashed these hopes. Both agents had been dead before the medical team had even gotten to them. His research had been deemed no longer worth the funding, and Berto had been transferred to another department to study the effects of gamma radiation.

He could have argued- could have explained to his boss Jefferson Smith that it was possible that the two agents just weren't compatible- they just had to find the right subject. He was positive it was just dependent on the right DNA sequencing. But there was no use. After such a failure, his boss Jefferson Smith wouldn't even allow animal testing, much less another human trial.

He sighed as he looked back at his empty lab one last time before turning off the lights. He had been so sure his research could help someone. He would be given a desk in the corner of the gamma lab. It was something, he supposed- Jefferson smith could have just fired him.

His shoulders slumped as he walked down the hall. There would be tons of paperwork to file for his new job- gamma radiation was dangerous to work with and N-Tek wanted to make sure scientists knew what they were getting into before they started work. It was a sector he'd promised his mother he'd never work in after she had seen that special on the news about cancer rates, but he knew he needed to make a living somehow.


	3. Chapter 3

It had been a long day, and as Rachel sized up the pile of paperwork she had in front of her, she knew it was about to get longer. The debacle in the experimental nano-tek lab had left a lot of paperwork for everyone who had been on base that night- whether they had actually been involved or not. The whole thing frustrated her. What was N-Tek doing wasting company funds on such shaky research anyway? They had never even received any hints that the science would ever even be useful. That's what you get for putting idealistic children in charge of laboratories…

She picked up the first piece of paper on the top of the pile and began to read the first question: "What were you doing on N-Tek property the night of the incident?"

She almost laughed. The question was not *what* but *who.

As if on cue, the door opened and shut quickly and quietly, admitting the very subject of her interrupted thoughts- Jake Nez.

She almost jumped out of her seat in her hurry to get him away from her office window where people could see him from the hallway.

"Jake," she scolded breathlessly, "you know we're not allowed to leave our offices or talk to other agents before we've been debriefed!"

He shrugged. "I got lonely."

She stifled a giggle as he pulled her into the dark corner along with him.

"Let's get out of here. So some freak got away with failed research…big deal."

She sighed as she grabbed one of his hands to stop it from it's wandering.

"I know, but I'm doing well here. I feel like I'm close to a promotion…you know how important this job is to me."

"And you know how important you are to me. Come on, I want to take you somewhere nice."

"Jake, I can't. I really can't. You know I would love to be anywhere but at my desk doing all this paperwork but-" the odd expression on his face made her stop mid-sentence.

He sighed heavily. "Well then, you leave me no choice. If you won't leave with me, so be it."

Her mind froze as she realized he was getting down on one knee, and before she knew it the tiny square box was being extended out in front of him.

"Rachel Leeds…will you marry me?"

On her desk there was a stack of questions she would have to answer. Many of them would be quite difficult. This was not one of them. She had never loved anyone more in her entire life.

She extended her hand and he slid the ring onto her finger. He stood up once more and she threw her arms around him.

He laughed. "Is that a yes?"

In response she kissed him- the kind of kiss that two people share when they realize they will spend the rest of their lives together. As he kissed her back, she realized he was the only thing she cared about right then. Paperwork could wait.

Obviously, he felt the same, and soon the two were on the floor of her office doing something that is strictly prohibited.


	4. Chapter 4

It hadn't taken long for Josh to call Pete and Laura to his house for a meeting. He had finally woken up at around midnight- he must have been more tired out from all the training he had been doing lately than he thought. He figured the N-Tek building should be abandoned at this time of night- it was sure long past business hours, but he was surprised to see a few lights on- one of them being the large window he knew to be his adopted father's office. He wondered briefly what the man was still doing at work at this hour, but decided he didn't have time to go figure it out.

Picking up his cell phone, he hit the first number on speed dial- Pete.

A groggy voice answered the phone muttering something unintelligible.

"Pete! Glad you're awake."

"I'm not."

"Come on, it's only midnight don't act like I woke you up."

"Some of us have 7 am classes…"

"It's ok you won't have to worry about those any more. Get Laura and bring her to my house, there are some things we've got to talk over."

The voice on the other line sounded a bit angrier all of the sudden. "Hey now wait a minute Josh I'm not-"

"See you there." He didn't care how Pete planned on finishing his sentence- Josh was not up for listening to anything besides exactly what he wanted to hear. He had just figured out their futures- they'd thank him later.

He had just finished making a sandwich when the doorbell rang, announcing a very scruffy looking Pete and Laura.

Josh rolled his eyes as he opened the door and saw them. "You guys go out in public looking lie that?"

Pete glared. "You woke us up."

Laura said nothing, but self-consciously tried to straighten out her shirt and smooth down her hair.

Josh shrugged as he turned his back on them and walked towards the living room. Flopping down on the one easy chair, he waited as Pete and Laura dragged wooden kitchen chairs over to sit nearby.

"So, Josh," Laura began evenly, "mind telling us what this is all about?"

Finishing his sandwich, Josh wiped his hands on his jeans and smiled at them both. "We're quitting school."

Pete looked at him suspiciously. "Aaaand you're using the plural to talk about yourself because…"

Josh grinned wider. "Not me. Us. We're all going to drop out."

Laura sighed. "Josh, my parents would never let me-"

Pete looked angry. "Ya know Josh, the whole college education thing is really important to some of us…"

Josh leaned forward in his chair, looking into the eyes of first Laura, and then Pete. "What do we go to college for? To get a job. As of tonight, we have jobs, so the whole college thing is completely pointless."

Laura looked thoughtful. Pete crossed his arms and sat back in his chair, scowling.

Josh took the silence as an opportunity to explain himself further- they were listening. "As of today I'm done with school. I'm pursuing my career as an extreme sports star full time. Pete, you're my manager. We'll be rich."

Laura looked up. "And my job?"

Josh reached out to hold her hand. "You're with me. You won't need to work a day in your life."

She looked unsure, but smiled and put her other hand on top of his. "What did your dad say about this? Is he excited?"

He would have waited til morning to call Jefferson and tell him the news, but remembering the lit up window, Josh knew his dad was awake anyway. "I was actually just about to call him- just wanted to make sure you guys were on board first. You're both the most important part of all this." He dialed Jeff's number and smiled warmly at them both. As the phone started ringing on the other line, he turned away and rolled his eyes.

It wasn't long before the voice of Jefferson Smith was on the other line. "Josh! What a nice surprise- I hope everything's all right?" The man sounded absolutely exhausted, but there was genuine happiness in his voice. A call from his son was a very rare thing. Though it always just meant he wanted something, he still liked it. After all, kids would be kids.

"Hey Dad. Just wanted to let you know I've changed my plans a little."

There was a slight pause on the other side of the line. Jefferson was used to Josh asking for things- money, equipment, etc., but he usually let Jefferson do the planning- Josh had never been the type to see more than a few days into the future. "I'm listening," was his answer, trying to sound as open as possible.

"I'm dropping out of school to pursue my career. I have a manager and I want full support from N-Tek- I'll be needing more equipment to make sure I'm taken seriously."

Jefferson sighed. "Son, why don't you come into the office tomorrow and we'll talk it over."

"Sorry Dad, no time. Schedule for tomorrow's already packed. Besides, I don't need to talk about anything. I'm doing it- that's all there is."

Jefferson nodded to himself. Josh was an adult- he could do whatever he wanted. They'd had this argument enough times for Jeff to know it was only a matter of time before Josh gave up on any other career options. Besides, there were bigger things to deal with right now- two agents were down, and the cover up they had under way was a little complicated. "Josh, you know I'll support you in whatever you want to do."

"I know. Thanks."

"Any time…I was wondering…I know you're very busy with everything, but my birthday is coming up and I was hoping we could have dinner."

"Uh…"

"It'd be short- just an hour," Jeff added hurriedly.

"Yeah, sure I'll see if I can make it."

Jeff smiled in his office. "Thanks, son. You know it means a lot to me."

"What day is it again?"

Jeff's smile faltered a little, but he didn't let himself take the question too seriously. Josh had a lot on his mind- he couldn't be expected to remember all life's little details. "Thursday."

"Oh right, cool. See ya then."

"Take care. I love you."

"Yeah you too." Josh snapped the phone shut and turned back to face his two house guests. "He's thrilled."

They both looked excited now- Laura had actually been wondering what the hell she'd be able to do with a degree in marine biology anyway, and Pete realized Josh was right- if you already had a job, what would be the point of college?

Taking in their expressions, Josh knew he had won. "Good to have you aboard guys. Now, if you can let yourselves out I'm going to take a shower and go to bed. You don't mind, do you?"

They looked at each other and shook their heads. Nothing they weren't used to.

"Thanks guys…oh and by the way, Pete?"

Pete looked away from Laura and back towards Josh. "What's up?"

"As your first act as manager I want you to buy a birthday card for my dad and make sure it gets to him by Thursday. I really don't have time to deal with that kind of stuff."


	5. Chapter 5

Thanks to his most infamous henchman, John Dread was now in possession of the nanoprobes N-Tek had conveniently created for him. He had waited a very long time to get his hands on these things, and there had been a very many disheartening failures.

Now, DREDD finally had it and all was good. John Dread was on top of the world. The only problem was, N-Tek themselves didn't seem quite done with the research and development process- he had expended more than twenty lower-level employees trying to find someone whose body would accept and bond with the nanoprobes. So far no luck.

If his had been any other organization, he might have given up then. Luckily, his was not your run of the mill type of place. Body disposal was an everyday task carried out by lower management, and his employees tended to lack familiar connections anyhow. Besides that, he had access to certain assets normal organizations would not. For example a man who had had his body successfully fused with titanium body parts. His immune system had shown good fortune accepting foreign substance as part of his body once. Dread was certain it would work a second time.

Psycho had been approached with the offer presented as an opportunity for him to get ahead in the organization and to be more powerful- something that would appeal particularly to him. The man wasn't always as stupid as he looked, however. He refused it right away. He'd seen the way the minions had all died, and it hadn't been quick and painless. He had too big of an ego to risk his life on something that wouldn't have a definite payout for him.

John Dread only asked once. It had been two weeks since Psycho refused him, and today was the day he was scheduled for his monthly maintenance by the organization's mechanics. While Psycho was off guard, one of the workers had hit him with a tranquilizer. It had taken four of them to haul him across the base to where the infusion would take place, but by the time their leader arrived everything was set up.

Casually glancing at his watch, Dread noted that it was nearly 7 PM. He frowned, remembering the appointment at 7:30 he did not want to be late for, but calmed when he saw Psycho begin to snap out of his haze. The cyborg went from baffled to enraged in a matter of five seconds.

"DREAD!"

Dread shushed him. "If this goes well, you'll thank me."

The cyborg tested his restraints and found the doctors had accounted for his extra strength. "DAMN YOU!" he howled.

The observer rolled his eyes. "Always so dramatic." He nodded to the technician. "Go ahead."

Psycho could do nothing but watch as the IV was inserted into his left arm and the green ooze started pumping into his body. He was quiet as he took in the odd sensation of the cool liquid entering his bloodstream.

"When will it be done?" Dread questioned the man in charge of the proceedings.

"We should have definite results in five hours."

He nodded. "I'll be back." He had somewhere to be. He turned and strode through the door. It closed behind him just in time to cut off the beginning of the screams.


	6. Chapter 6

Jefferson Smith finished straightening out his desk for the third time that afternoon. Whenever there was a shortage of time there were always a million things for him to do. Now that he wanted to have an excuse to put off certain tasks, his schedule was wide open. Things had a way of turning out like that.

He glanced at the notepad in front of him. All the points were jotted down so he wouldn't forget to say anything, no matter how the conversation went. Although he had been CEO of N-Tek for quite a few years, he didn't think firing people would ever get easy. He didn't have much experience at it either- to be honest, most people at N-Tek usually found their demise in the field before Smith had to fire them. At an organization like N-Tek, people who work together ended up getting closed- they risked their lives side by side every other week, so a lot of employees grew to be more like family than co-workers. Which was why it was going to be so hard for him to fire Dr. Klemo.

Klemo had been working there before Smith had even signed up. Like Roberto Martinez, he had been a brilliant kid and had been hired by Marco Nathanson upon graduating college a year early at age 20. His specialty had been all the rage back then- genetic experimentation, cloning, genome mapping- it was the decade when the scientific community had just begun exploring these new fields, and Nathanson had seen significant possibility for them.

Lately, however, Klemo had shown signs of instability. Although he had a family, he tended to stay at N-Tek for days on end- never going home and sleeping very little. His appearance had gotten a bit frightening, and his work had taken a turn for the macabre…Smith had on several occasions observed hazmat teams removing large bags of rats and other lab animals and hauling them to the incinerator. When the man had first begun with his experimentations, he was actually able to make significant improvements to several species- adding genes that would cure inherited diseases or that would lessen the wear and tear of the body over time to increase the lifespan of an animal. That had all changed within the last few years. Now it seemed that every living thing he worked on died, and it was usually a horrible deformed mess when it had to be disposed of. The man had stopped filing the proper paperwork to obtain permission for his experiments as well, and Smith knew that whatever was going on in that lab needed to end.

It was all very cut and dry when he said it in his head, when he wrote down his points on the pad of paper. It should be easy- surely it would even benefit Klemo to have more time to spend with his family…but every time he moved to pick up the phone, he couldn't seem to raise his hand. Could he really fire the man that had helped him through his first years at N-Tek? Who had taught Josh to throw a curve ball?

Sighing, he decided that he had no choice. He reached forward, gripped the handset, and dialed the extension for Klemo's lab. Listening to the phone ring, he hoped that somehow Klemo was not there to answer, so he would have an excuse to delay a while longer. Maybe the scientist would turn his behavior around. Maybe he was just going through a hard-

"Genetics laboratory."

_Damn_. "Good afternoon, doctor, this is Jefferson Smith."

There was a pause on the other end of the line. The CEO never called the labs personally, and everyone knew it. "What can I do for you, Jefferson?"

"I'd like you to come by my office when you get the chance. I need to discuss something with you."

Another pause. "I actually just finished with something. I can head over right now."

"Great."

"See you soon."

Jefferson hung up the phone and swore. Besides some sort of freak accident on the walk from the laboratories, Smith was all out of excuses. He was going to have to just go through with this and hope things went all right. Maybe Klemo would even understand. He was a scientist, a rational man. Surely he would see that Jefferson was only doing his job and was not the bad guy in this situation…

Smith's secretary was just about to start typing an office memo concerning the unnecessary use of electricity around the base, when the door to the CEO's suite opened and a squirrely- looking man in a lab coat appeared.

"Mr. Smith asked to see me?"

Ah. The soon to be unemployed scientist. She put on her sweetest smile. "You must be Dr. Klemo. Yes, Mr. Smith is expecting you. Can I get you some coffee? Anything to drink? You look exhausted, dear."

His mouth twitched in what was probably his attempt to smile politely. "No thank you."

"All right then, you go on ahead. I'll buzz you in."

"Thank you." He walked towards the door and turned the door knob once he heard the buzzing noise coming from the security button on the wall next to Smith's secretary. If anyone wanted to get into Smith's office, they had to go through her first. Not many people knew this, but the woman was actually a highly-trained personal security operative. She was an excellent secretary, and was well-accustomed to putting on the act for visitors, but the Berretta velcroed to the underside of her desk was always loaded.

She watched as the door swung shut behind the man, then turned back to the not she had been typing. Her brow furrowed for a moment, and she made a quick decision. She deleted the heading she had originally entered and changed the subject of the memo from turning the lights off when you weren't using a room to how important it was for employees to get enough sleep, especially when they were handling hazardous materials daily. She did not like the look of that Klemo character.

She hadn't been involved in her work for very long when she began to hear raised voices arguing from inside her boss's office. After a moment's consideration, she paged security. Although she was trained to handle threats to her employer in emergencies, she preferred to keep her cover intact when she could. While she believed Smith would definitely require assistance in removing the disgruntled employee from the premises, she did not believe that the situation was anything life threatening. Despite his appearance, Smith _had_ once been an agent, and she was confident he could handle one sleep-deprived scientist is need be. All the same, she was relieved once two burly security guards came bolting through the door. She didn't have to tell them where the problem was- the raised voices behind the thick oak door had now become louder and it was obvious that someone was very unhappy.

Raising one hand in a signal for the two men to wait before charging into the office, she pressed down the intercom button. "Sir, I have security here."

The yelling on the other side of the door increased. Jefferson sighed. "Send them in."

"Yes sir." She nodded to the two men and hit the buzzer. "He's all yours."

They nodded to her then went into the office. It took them all of thirty seconds to wrestle the skinny man out of the chair he had been clutching and through the doorway.

As they passed by her, she pretended to be oblivious to what was going on, and resumed typing up her memo.

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!" The man howled as he twisted in the grip of the security guards. "I PRACTICALLY HELP YOU RAISE THAT BOY AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME?"

Jefferson's face crumpled. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but couldn't seem to find the right words, and closed it again.

"YOU'LL REGRET THIS. I PROMISE YOU THAT!"

Klemo had grabbed onto the side of the door leading out of the suite and into the hallway. One of the guards grabbed hold of his hand and pulled it free. "Come on, let's go Klemo."

The man continued to howl and yell threats until all three were free of the doorway, and the door shut behind them.

"I'm sorry," Smith whispered, still staring at the door one of his oldest friends had just been dragged through.

The suite was quiet for a few moments- the only sounds was the chattering of the woman's keyboard. Smith stood frozen on the threshold of his office, unable to do anything but stand there staring at the door wondering if he could have done something different. He had just had Klemo removed from the building. Hadn't offered any alternatives, hadn't offered any help…dear god, what kind of man was he? What kind of monster? He remained, becoming more and more horrified with himself.

His secretary suddenly turned from her work. "Hey sir," she chirped happily, "isn't it your birthday tomorrow?"


	7. Chapter 7

The elderly woman signing Laura Chen's "withdrawal from course" form sighed. "I really wish you'd re-think this, Laura. You're one of the very few students I've ever had with a talent for the subject."

Josh McGrath's girlfriend stared at her feet. "I've given it plenty of thought. The way things are going I'll never need to earn a living. Besides, what would I have done with a degree in marine biology anyway?" She laughed, but stopped immediately when she saw the hurt look on her favorite professor's face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

Dr. Miller waved dismissively, and the hurt expression turned to one of worry. "Laura…I'm sure this boyfriend of yours is great. I'm sure you do really love him. But please, don't make the same mistake so many other women in love have made. You need to finish your education. You need to be able to stand on your own feet…whether you ever have to or not."

Laura stared at the woman coldly as she took the form from her hand. "You'll see me on tv."

Her professor watched the young woman storm out the door, feeling helpless. She knew her student would find out the hard way, as all stubborn people inevitably did. She just wished that one time she could be able to stop them from getting hurt in the first place. She touched the spot on her finger where her wedding ring had sat for twenty-four years. All fools in love believed in the promise of forever.

Laura finished her business at the university and smiled as she confidently strode out the door of the building for the last time. The struggle of academic life was for average people who didn't yet know where their lives were going. She knew. Josh was going to be famous, and she was going to be with him every step of the way.

He was waiting for her in the red convertible his dad had bought him on his seventeenth birthday- even though he had failed the driving test three times. She noticed the cardboard boxes stacked across the back seats as she got into the passenger seat. "What's all that?"

"Our stuff." He started the car and sped off towards the highway.

"Our stuff? Are we going somewhere?"

"We're moving to LA. That's where all the big competitions are in this part of the country. Pete's tying up all the loose ends. We should be there by dinner time."

"Oh." She began to ask him who had packed up all her clothes, but his phone rang and he was soon involved in an animated conversation about Saturday's competition.

She turned and looked out the window as they zoomed past the sign stating they were leaving the city limits. "Bye Del Oro."


	8. Chapter 8

The day after Dr. Klemo was fired was, in fact, Jefferson Smith's birthday, and he was determined to make it a good one. He had been saving the good news for today- there would be no one leaving his office at him angry on his birthday. Today he was going to make one of his employees- Rachel Leeds- very happy. Leeds had been hard-working and ambitious since first arriving at N-Tek six years ago. Her work had always been perfect, and she had been gunning for (and deserving) a promotion to chief manager of their European headquarters for some time now. He knew she would be thrilled to get the news. Hell, she probably already her bags packed. Jefferson waited for her to arrive, probably as excited to give the news as she would be to receive it.

When he heard the entry buzzer and saw the door open, however, he knew right away that things weren't going to happen as he had planned it. She was excited all right- she was glowing. Jefferson knew that a person does not glow when they get a promotion. He or she glows when they are in love. A casual glance at her left hand confirmed his suspicions. The engagement ring was small, but he knew that Rachhel would have probably turned down anything larger. While the CEO of N-Tek didn't spend much time talking to his employees, he knew them better than people thought. He offered the promotion, and wasn't surprised when she turned it down. Jake Nez was surely _not_ in line for a promotion to Europe, and he knew Rachel would not be going without him.

Smith pretended to be happy for her and offered his congratulations on the engagement. He joked that he had a handsome son in case things didn't work out and shook her hand before she left, promising her that the position was hers whenever she wanted it.

He shook his head once she had gone. She had so much promise, but she would go nowhere as long as she was tied to Nez. Sighing, he opened the folder containing the latest mission information that had been sitting on his desk. One of their field assets, Kat Ryan, had been carrying out a surveillance op in the Amazon for six weeks, following leads on a suspicious chemical plant. Because of the many hazards of the area, she was expected to check in with N-Tek every day at noon local time. While she had never missed a check-in, it had been a week since they had heard from her. Smith had given her some time in case she was experiencing technical difficulties and just needed some time to get to a nearby town and find a phone to use. She had more than enough time to find some way to contact N-Tek. Something was wrong.

As he went through the list of available agents to assign to the case, he noticed Rachel Leeds' file was still on his desk. He picked it up, considering the situation. Well, he supposed it _was_ a job for two people. Entering the mission information into the computer system, he typed in the names of the agents assigned to locate Ryan- Jake Nez and Rachel Leeds. He wished them the best.

The rest of the day was business as usual. Many of his employees remembered his birthday, which was nice. He left work early to give himself time to get ready for dinner with Josh, but his son never called. When he got home there was a birthday card from the boy in his mailbox, but the handwriting filling it did not belong to Josh McGrath.

Smith heated up a microwave dinner and tried to think of someone to call. In the old days he would've gone out for a drink with a friend or two, but it had been years since he'd spoken to any of the people he and Jim had spent time with on a regular basis.

Finally, he just decided to go to bed. Going up the stairs, he felt something was amiss, but he assumed he was just being emotional about spending his birthday alone…again. When he pulled back the covers to get into bed, he cursed himself for ignoring his intuition. The snake that had been lying in wait was obviously not normal. A strange deep purple color, he recognized it as one of Klemo's original species.

He threw himself back away from the bed, but of course it wasn't fast enough. The reptile lunged, its teeth sinking into his lower right leg. The pain was incredible as he felt the venom sear through his body. He had seen the substance tested on lab animals at N-Tek and knew the ambulance would never arrive in time.

As his vision began to dim and he felt his temperature soar, he thought of calling Josh to say goodbye. He began to reach for his cell phone, but then decided against it. He knew his son wouldn't pick up anyway. He never did.

Smith rolled to his right so that at the very least he could look at the framed photographs of him and the boy he had cared for as he died.


	9. Chapter 9

Jake Nez and Rachel Leeds were alerted to their mission the next morning, received a briefing of the situation by the agent who had been in charge of contact with Kat Ryan, and were off to the Amazon that afternoon.

They were given their own personal jet to take there and were scheduled to arrive that evening. While Rachel planned on sticking to the schedule, Nez persuaded her to make a stop in Beliz, which he insisted was "so romantic this time of year". Rachel supposed it couldn't hurt. They spent the night under the stars and were well rested and ready to continue their journey in the morning. They were headed to Peru's section of the forest, and it didn't take them long to get there.

Although they got to the town closest to Kat's last known location with plenty of daylight left, they soon ran into other complications. It seemed that Nez had slightly exaggerated on his "fluent" ranking on his proficiency level in Spanish. The man's skills were elementary at best, and they ended up having to locate a translator. While Rachel was a little disappointed, she knew that Nez was a good guy, and that many people probably exaggerated their skill sets when talking about themselves.

The closest person who spoke English lived three hours away. Due to the conditions of the local roads, he wouldn't arrive until that evening, which meant they had spent another day doing nothing. Rachel had briefly considered going out to search without gathering intel, but knew that was not a good idea. The rainforest was a big place, and they had no idea where to start looking. Until the man got there, there was nothing they could do but wait. Well, actually Nez had a few suggestions but none were particularly productive in relevance to the mission.

When he finally did arrive, the man spoke with the villagers across a campfire. Rachel and Nez were quick to explain the situation, so the native knew which lines of questioning to use in order to find out the information in the most efficient manner possible. He was able to tell from Rachel Leeds' demeanor that it would be best to give the agents the information they were looking for as soon as possible.

He spoke with the townspeople for a few minutes before turning to Rachel and Jake. "They say they've been seeing quite a few foreigners about lately…did your agent have any identifying features?"

"She's got blue hair," Jake answered.

Rachel frowned. That was odd. The village only had a population of 26 and was on the edge of the Amazon rainforest. It wasn't exactly a tourist location.

The translator communicated the information to the local he was speaking with, and a fast change occurred in the second man's demeanor as he began chattering animatedly and pointing towards the forest.

The translator listened, frowning for a while as he waited for the man to finish. Turning to the visitors, he said "Apparently your friend is well liked here. She would stop by and talk with them every three days. When she stopped coming last week they started getting nervous, but couldn't do anything…they didn't know who to contact."

Rachel nodded. "They wouldn't."

The man from the village spoke with more urgency now that he knew Kat was the one they were discussing. He kept turning to Rachel and Nez instead of the translator, seemingly frustrated that he had to wait for the man to relay everything he said. Seeming about to explode with frustration, the man finally grabbed a twig lying on the ground and bent down to draw some simple yet effective pictures in the dirt. One seemed to be a large, manmade complex of some kind, and the other was unmistakable- a man with a warped face and a claw attached to a deformed-looking arm.

Rachel and Nez exchanged uneasy looks, and the man stopped drawing, knowing he had communicated his message. Rachel nodded slowly, staring at the pictures. She looked up at the translator. "He thinks she's in that building, doesn't he?"

After a brief exchange, the translator nodded. "Yes."

Rachel glanced towards the tree line. If Psycho had Kat, the situation was not good. They needed to move as soon as possible. They had already wasted so much time… She knew that she could not let worry get the better of her. The best they could do right now when it was so dark was to focus on gathering all the information they could so they could get to the base quickly once the sun rose.

She sat down on the ground between the two men, Jake shadowing her, and nodded towards the local. "Please tell us everything you know about that base."

The other man translated the request, and the four sat and planned until they were sure they hadn't missed anything.

They set out at sunup the next day. The man had given the two N-Tek agents all the information they needed. They knew exactly where the base was and the best ways to get there- as well as which areas to stay away from to avoid detection.

The man had spoken of several units of guards that constantly patrolled the forest. He said they were not very intelligent or stealthy- just run of the mill men in strange uniforms that stomped around shooting everything in sight.

Jake and Rachel knew something was wrong when they saw none of these. They didn't see a single guard, and while they encountered a few traps, the place had clearly been abandoned. An entrance in the side of the base- which seemed to be converted from an old temple of some sort- was evident in the way the foliage had been crushed and trodden. The people leaving did so with plenty of equipment and people, and did not really seem to care about covering their tracks. Whoever had been here had left on their own time, and with everything they needed.

The two drew their guns and approached, ready for more traps, but there were none. The door hadn't even been closed all the way, and there were plenty of insects and spiders inside the tunnel leading into the heart of the temple. They walked slowly, not wanting to make any stupid mistakes after coming so far.

"She's not going to be here," Jake whispered. "If they had her, they would have taken her along with them- they wouldn't have just let her go."

"And if they didn't have her?"

"Then she wouldn't be hanging around here...The place is abandoned, Rachel. It looks like Psycho won…"

Rachel sighed. She knew he was probably right, but she also knew what the manual would say. "We have to clear the area. Make sure there's nothing to be found."

Nez nodded. "All right."

They were silent as they continued to make their way through the base. Every room they cleared increased the sense of dread they felt. Several rooms were full of expensive equipment that looked like they would be used to process chemicals. They doubted Psycho had gotten away with a truckload of Penicillin.

At the end of the hall there was one more door- from the look of it, it was probably been where prisoners had been kept. It was heavily reinforced and looked like it took two key cards to open it simultaneously. This too, had been left open. Psycho really must not have had anything to worry about.

Rachel picked up the pace. "Come on, this is the best lead we could have. Maybe Kat was able to leave us some sort of message."

Nez nodded. "I'll take point."

Rachel faltered. She wasn't used to letting anyone take the lead.

Nez stopped, and gently put his hand on the side of her face. "It could be a trap. Please let me look out for you when I can."

She didn't know what to say, and she felt herself melt a little when he said that, so she stayed silent.

He saw she was making no effort to overrule him. He smiled. "Thank you."

She remained five steps behind him while he entered the room, making sure to check behind the door before he signaled her in. There were four cells in the area- the first three were open and obviously empty. The last one was the first closed door they had encountered since they had arrived.

Rachel's heart quickened. They had left her behind. They were going to save her. Nez was apparently thinking the same thing as he rushed to kick the door open. Guns drawn, ready for surprises, they crowded into the tiny room.

The cell stank. The corpse on the floor was unmistakably dead, but Rachel ran to check for vitals anyway. She shook the body, commanding it to wake up, and feverishly struggled to find a pulse, to hear some sort of heart beat.

Nez stood stunned and silent. Rachel hadn't had the chance to see the message written on the wall in big blocky letters: WE DIDN'T WANT TO WASTE A BULLET. SHE'S ALL YOURS. A date was scrawled under it- August 12, 2000. Almost eight days ago. Scanning the floor around him, he was unsurprised to see any remnants of food or containers that might have held water. The room was sweltering. They had just left her for dead.

Rachel had not given up, switching from gripping the corpse's wrist, putting her fingers to its neck, and pressing her ear to its chest.

Jake struggled to keep his voice from breaking. "Rachel."

She ignored him, continuing the actions which had become almost ritualistic.

He crouched down beside her. "Rachel."

She pushed him away.

"Rachel, stop." He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him, and held her so she couldn't look at the body. She struggled half-heartedly against him for a moment, then gave up and let herself lean in to his embrace.

He reached up to activate his communicator. "Officer Jake Nez, official record. N-Tek employee Kat Ryan declared deceased at 09:07, August 19. 2000."

Rachel and Jake sat against their plane in the middle of the field where they had landed the day before. Kat's body had been picked up by a US employee of the American Embassy, and was on its way back to Del Oro for analysis.

Jake held Rachel tight, pulling the blanket they shared closer. "You know they've prepared a room for us in town."

Rachel shook her head slowly. "Did you see their expressions when we told them she was dead? …I can't face them."

He took her face in his hands and tilted her chin up so she would meet his eyes. "Rachel…you know we couldn't have done anything to save her…right?"

She met his eyes, smiled sadly, and nodded in agreement.

"Good. It wasn't our fault- you know that. I won't let you blame yourself for this."

She nodded again, putting him at ease. He couldn't know what she was thinking. He couldn't know that she was analyzing every minute they had wasted- from the late departure from Del Oro, to the side trip to Belize, to his misleading everyone into thinking he was fluent in the local language. He couldn't know that no matter what he said, she knew what they should have done. She knew they could have saved her.


	10. Chapter 10

The temperature at the sports park in Los Angeles had reached 115 degrees, but Laura Chen dutifully stood outside watching Josh compete in one of the twenty skateboarding events of the day. She would have much preferred to stay inside in the air conditioning and watched the event on television – as it was currently being broadcasted live, but Josh had asked her to stay and watch as a favor to him. She tried to tell herself it wasn't _too_ hot, but she was having more and more trouble ignoring the waves of dizziness that kept threatening to overpower her as she stood in the afternoon sun.

Josh was just finishing up his half-pipe routine, which of course he performed perfectly. Though exhausted, Laura was still excited to see him do so well and took her hands off the table she had been leaning on to clap for him. She supposed she was feeling a little shakier than she imagined because when she did that her world started tilting. She took an unintentional step back and felt a firm hand on her elbow, steadying her.

"Laura…you don't look so good."

She laughed half-heartedly, letting herself lean against Pete for support. "Thanks, Pete. You know how clumsy I am…Not that I'm complaining, but I thought you were going to hang out in the hotel."

He looked down at her face, frowning. "I was…I just thought I'd come see how things were going."

She brightened. "He's won every event he's been in so far. It looks like he's the definite favorite for the day."

Pete nodded slowly. "That's great, but I was more wondering about how _you_ were doing. It's pretty brutal out here."

"Oh, I'm fine. I've spent too much time inside studying lately anyway, getting some sun is good."

His expression didn't change. "Hm."

The two stood together silently for a few minutes as Josh was swarmed by photographers and reporters. Pete started to say something to her, but the moment was interrupted by the ringing of Josh's cell phone that she held onto while he competed.

Looking down, she saw the number had no caller ID. "That's weird."

"I guess you should answer that. I'm going to go get some water, ok?"

"Yeah, sure," she answered distracted. She wasn't used to answering Josh's phone, especially when she didn't know who was calling. "Hello?"

"Good afternoon. Is this Ms. Chen?"

She hesitated, caught off guard. "Um, yes. Yes it is. How can I help you?"

"I hope so. Is Josh around?"

She stood on her toes to try and see over the crowd of people that had been surrounding her boyfriend, but she couldn't tell whether he was still there or not.

"He is…somewhere. Would you like me to take a message Mr…"

"Mairot. Jean Mairot. And yes, I suppose that would be best."

A day later Josh and Laura sat together dressed in black as a minister read some words over Jefferson Smith's gravesite. It had been a short ceremony with few religious aspects – Jefferson had wanted it that way, and the coffin was very simple. While Josh had seemed unconcerned by how everything had already been taken care of, Laura was a bit surprised. Did all CEOs have their funerals pre-arranged? She had never thought of Josh's adoptive father as morbid but he seemed to have been almost expecting his death…

She shuddered, stopping herself from overthinking the situation. Jefferson had always been a considerate man, and she supposed he must have just wanted to make things easy for Josh when this time eventually came. Looking up at Josh, she was almost relieved to see the slightly broken expression on his face. She hadn't wanted to admit it to herself, but she was almost worried he would sit there unconcerned and impatient to get back to his own life.

The burial was over quickly. Laura and Josh began to make their way back to the parking lot without stopping to speak to anyone. While everyone there seemed to know him, and offered sympathetic nods and handshakes, he was sure he had never met any of the people in attendance in his life. There was not much to talk about. Jefferson was dead, and that was that.

One person stopped them, and that was the man who had called to deliver the news the day before – Jean Mairot.

"Josh McGrath."

Josh looked up. "That's me."

The man offered his hand and Josh shook it. "I worked very closely with your father and wanted to offer my condolences. He was a great man and he will be missed."

Josh's voice broke as he responded with "Thank you."

"I don't want to take up a lot of your time; I just wanted to tell you that your father had asked me to settle his affairs in case anything happened to him."

Laura couldn't help herself. "Was he expecting something to happen to him?"

Josh gave her a shocked look, but Mairot gave her a small sad smile. "His doctors had been warning him about his cholesterol and daily stress levels for a while. I think he might have known he was at a high risk for a heart attack."

Laura felt stupid. "Oh."

Mairot gave her a nod, then turned back to Josh. "I will be handling your father's will and all paperwork. In the eventuality of this happening, your father wanted to make everything as simple as he could for you. Unfortunately I probably will have to call you every now and then, but I'll try to keep it to a minimum. Is the number I called the best one to reach you at?"

Josh considered for a moment, then shook his head, taking out a business card from his pocket. Laura was surprised – it was the first time she had ever seen him carrying one of those. "Unless I personally am needed for something, all information and financial matters can be settled by talking to my manager Pete Costas."

If Mairot was taken aback by this he didn't show it. Instead he graciously took the card from Josh, wished him well, and started off in the opposite direction.

Josh resumed his walk back towards the parking lot, but Laura hesitated, watching the other man. "Is there more that needs to be taken care of for the funeral? Do you need any help?"

Mairot turned and looked back, seeming to study her briefly. "That's very kind of you, but everything has been taken care of. I'm actually on my way to visit another service." He nodded towards a second burial site a while down. While a priest was saying some words over the grave, the site seemed devoid of mourners.

"Ok…Thank you again for handling everything."

"It was very nice meeting you, Ms. Chen."

"You too, Mr. Mairot." With that she turned and jogged a little to catch up with Josh, who had not slowed his pace.

Mairot watched her go, and then turned back and resumed his course towards Kat Ryan's grave.


	11. Chapter 11

She sighed contentedly. "You always know what I'll like."

"My dear, you always say that."

"Well, it's the truth."

"At times, I think that you say that just to make me happy."

"I would never lie to you."

"Yes, I suppose that's true."

She laughed, and he smiled. He couldn't remember any other time in his life in which he had found himself smiling so frequently. She had realized this, and it amazed her to think that she, a "misfit" that had never received any attention from a man before, had some strange importance to someone as feared as John Dread.

They ordered their dinner and she waited until the waiter was out of hearing range. As soon as this happened, she leaned forward and spoke in a very low and excited voice.

"Well…have you seen any progress with the special project?"

He examined his glass of water thoughtfully. "They have just finished with the administration of the nanoprobes. They should know something by tomorrow night. A good twenty-four hours. As of now, it's impossible to know…even though when I left the situation seemed…a bit violent."

"Is it safe for you to be so close to him? If we don't know what might happen you could get hurt. It would be too easy-"

He took her hands in his, gently shushing her. "He is very securely restrained and has four armed guards watching him. I do not have any plans of getting close to him. I promise you I am not going to put myself in danger."

She did not seem completely convinced.

He smiled again. "I have no interest in anything that would shorten the time that I plan on spending with you."

She felt her face warm as she blushed at his gaze. Realizing she had turned what was supposed to be a romantic night out into a business conference, she quickly changed the subject to more casual matters and he followed along seamlessly. Laughing and enjoying each other's company, the dinner went by all too quickly, as it usually did.

It was amazing how much he could transform himself to fit the circumstances. When he acted this way, it seemed too natural. She found it impossible to tell which personality was truly him – the ruthless executioner, or the smiling man sitting across the candlelit table from her describing the beauties of places she could only dream of going one day.

In fact the only time she even glimpsed that other personality the whole night was when the bill came. The waiter had accidentally placed it in a way that tilted slightly towards the woman at the table, and although John Dread was quick to place it out of her sight, she still managed to see it. The look the server received was pure ice, and had John's date been less shocked by the price she may have felt some pity for the young man.

Despite the apparent hatred Dread harbored for the server, he still chuckled when he turned back to his date and took in her expression of utter shock. "It's only a number, my dear."

"That's – that's too much."

"Of course it's not," he assured her smoothly, subtly tucking several hundred dollar bills into the bill holder.

She blinked.

He looked her sternly in the eye. "I have money. A lot of it. And you are the only person I have ever had with which to share it. Please, let me indulge myself in taking care of you every once in a while."

Not knowing what to say, she simply nodded. How was one supposed to argue with such a statement?

Smiling, he stood up and took her arm as they walked to the front of the restaurant together. Stepping out onto the sidewalk, they were quickly greeted by his best driver, who held the door of the black limousine open for the two.

She began to walk towards it, knowing that it wasn't very safe for him to be out in the open for long, but he signaled her to stop. "Actually, I was thinking we might walk for a bit. If you don't mind."

"Not at all." It was a beautiful night, and she had always fantasized walking under such a beautiful starlit sky with the man of her dreams.

He stepped forward and offered a handshake to his driver, who was of course more than just that. Firmly clasping the other man's hand, he gave clear instructions for him to meet them on the other side of the park adjacent to the restaurant. Holding eye contact a second longer than was typical, Dread nodded before putting his smile back on and returning to the beautiful woman waiting for him a few steps ahead.

The driver watched them stroll together holding hands under the street lights. Glancing up at a second story window of one of the houses lining the street, he saw a slight movement in the curtains lining the frame. While everything was supposed to appear perfectly normal, there were currently four snipers keeping watch over the situation. The occupants of the park his boss was to stroll through with his date were all employed by DREDD as well. The woman would never know any of this.

Which brought him back to the current situation. Flexing his right hand, he felt the small piece of paper that had been transmitted under the guise of a friendly handshake. Making sure the couple could no longer see him, he unfolded it, reading it quickly.

_Our server was the tall blond man working the Northeast corner of the room. The name on his tag is Gerard. Kill him. _

The request to be picked up on the opposite end of the park left the man with a good ten minutes to complete the task. It would probably take him three. The driver shook his head as he put on his gloves and entered the restaurant. The waiters in this city really had to step up their game. This was the fifth one this week that had royally pissed off John Dread.

There was a full moon that night that bathed the park in a beautiful silvery light. John Dread's face seemed to glow as he spoke to her about the world and how they would make it better. Make it beautiful. Make it theirs.

She laughed lightly. "You flatter me, John."

Smiling once more, he looked sideways at her. "Oh?"

"Including me on your plans for the future. It sounds nice."

He had stopped walking. Looking around, she realized they stood in the middle of the park, directly underneath the moon which had to be the brightest she had ever seen. Taking both her hands in his as he had done in the restaurant, he moved to stand in front of her, looking into her dark eyes.

"I'm glad to hear you say that."

"You are?"

"Yes. I am."

Gazing up at him, she suddenly felt happier than she ever had in her life. Nothing could make this moment any better.

"I know you prefer to go by Dragonelle, so I beg you to forgive me for using your original name in this instance. It just seems more suitable."

Before she could process what was happening, he had dropped to one knee in front of her and pulled out a ring with the biggest diamond she had ever seen. Under the light of the moon it was absolutely radiant – almost supernatural in its beauty.

"Dragonelle, Ella Long, I want you to marry me."


	12. Chapter 12

"That should be the last of it – just leave it on the desk please."

The man nodded, depositing the box where Mairot had asked, and then left the room.

_Well, there are definitely perks of being CEO_, mused the newest head of N-Tek. There was sure as hell no one around to help him move the last time he switched offices. The death of Jefferson Smith had been tragic, and was surely a loss felt by the entire intelligence community. Clearly, the man had done a lot of good in his time. Jean Mairot had always respected Smith as a man and as a leader, however he had never liked him. If he was being honest with himself, he didn't really know how much longer he could have gone on working under the man. He had been under the strong belief that he himself could do a better job and there had been many attractive offers from other employers. Not that he would have ever sold out N-Tek. He didn't have it in him to be a traitor…or at least that's what he had been telling himself these last few months.

He shook himself out of that particular line of thought. The way things had happened to work out, that was nothing he had to think about ever again. It was in very poor taste to rejoice in another man's death – especially one with whom he had worked so closely with. Of course while amongst other people, Jean Mairot made sure to display the proper amount of grief and morose. The intelligence field was a tricky one, and a man never knew when he could be accused of sabotage or even murder when he least expected it. The last thing he would do is let others know how downright pleased he was to be sitting in this office with the view of Del Oro Bay. No wonder Smith had stayed late so often. The scenery was truly magnificent. And it's not like he had much to go home to.

As if on cue, his eyes fell on a framed picture of Smith's adopted son, Josh McGrath. He was glad that no one else was around, as he found it impossible to conceal the scowl that covered his face as he considered the smug young man in the photograph. He had known the boy's father and he was glad Jim McGrath was long dead. McGrath had been a great man – a selfless hero who had made the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good. Mairot shuddered to think what the man would have thought of the way his son had turned out. Smith had dedicated what had been left over of his life outside N-Tek to raise the boy and give him everything a person could ever want. Mairot seriously doubted that the boy had ever said so much as thank you. Seeing him at the funeral, it took all his restraint not to cause the man physical harm. Mairot had been subtly observing him throughout the service, hoping to see some shred of humanity – some semblance of hope that maybe the kid just had a thick skin from having such a difficult childhood. Maybe there really was a decent human being in there. Josh had checked his watch six times as his adopted father's coffin was being lowered into the ground.

It was without hesitation that he swept the photograph into the waste basket. He shuddered to think of all the times Jefferson had mentioned dreaming about bring Josh into N-Tek one day. It was perhaps a good thing the boy had never shown interest in any career aside from his own self-glorification. If he had had to work with Josh McGrath, Mairot believed that would have probably been the final straw. The appeal of the offers he had up to now been getting from…competing companies…would have suddenly been too great to deny if it had been coupled with the horror of working with Josh McGrath.

Luckily, his dour mood would not last long today. He had only been alone in the office for fifteen minutes when his secretary – Smith's old one – informed him that Rachel Leeds and Jake Nez were there to see him. He breathed a sigh of contentment. Rachel had always been so refreshing – so purposeful, so efficient, so amazing at what she did. He was glad that she had finally found happiness with someone – especially because that someone was another agent. Some might see this as more of a problem than not, but Mairot was of the firm belief that it was better for agents to choose people who had already cleared N-Tek security checks. Nez wasn't nearly as bright or as good at the job as Rachel was – gossip around N-Tek was that Leeds had chosen a man far beneath her, but he had a good heart and a bright optimism about him that Rachel lacked. He was earnest and loyal, and was in the field for all the right reasons. It was his job not to have an opinion on the matter, but he thought they complimented each other quite nicely.

He got up from his chair to usher the couple in warmly, shaking Rachel's hand with two of his and embracing Nez. "Congratulations, you two."

Nez beamed. "Thank you, sir."

Rachel was a bit surprised in how differently this superior had received the news than the last, but was cautiously happy. She nodded, smiling.

He sat back behind his desk, folding his hands on top of the surface. "Look, I know it used to be policy that couples couldn't work together – that emotions might compromise the mission."

Jake nodded in reluctant agreement.

"However." Mairot leaned forward towards them. "I think that policy is completely wrong. All of our best teams have always cared for each other deeply on one level or another, and I believe that is why they work. If an agent doesn't love their partner, there's no way they're going to give their all for them. There's no motivation."

Rachel looked up, feeling a faint glimmer of hope for the first time since they had revealed their engagement to Smith. Maybe her marital situation didn't have to be a pull on her work.

"This is not to say that I am going to be lifting the policy entirely or allowing any couple who wants to work together do so – I don't believe fleeting romances are what makes good work, but what you two have seems to be strong and I would very much like to let you work together. You're both intelligent and capable, and I don't see anything wrong with it. To be fair, though, I will be sending you two out on a trial mission."

Nez smiled broadly. While his field work could be a little shoddy, he knew Rachel could make any mission go smoothly.

Rachel nodded. Suddenly they were talking shop, and she was all business. "What's the mission?"

Mairot had considered several options but had eventually decided to go with an easy, heartfelt mission. The type that every agent liked. It would be his engagement gift to them. "We got a report this morning that an orphanage up in Canada has been taken over by an unidentified armed group. Satellite surveillance has shown they're using civilian weapons, so we're betting a small time gang looking for a government ransom for the kids, something to that effect." Clicking a button on the remote on his desk, an overhead image of men equipped with assorted brands of handguns was projected onto the wall behind him.

Rachel's forehead furrowed. "If they're so small time, why haven't the local authorities stepped in yet?"

Mairot removed a map of the area from the file and flattened it out on the desk, showing the two a small area circled in black. "The orphanage is on a small mountain. Only about an hour's hike to the peak, however it makes matters very difficult for police or a swat team to get in without alerting the hostage-takers. And of course, when children are involved no one wants to be the first to move in case one of the perps gets an itchy trigger finger."

"Those kids are going to be just fine." Nez had taken on a determined look. He loved kids, and Mairot knew he was a man who would do everything in his power to keep the ones in question safe.

Rachel gave her fiancé a small smile, but turned her attention back to her superior. "Sir, what makes you think it's a good idea for us to intervene? What if someone is alerted to our presence and does something…rash?"

Mairot nodded smiling. "That's why I'm sending you two. You're both excellent agents and I have faith you'll be able to sneak past the group's defenses unnoticed – much more so than the SWAT team the local police is probably preparing right about now. And as far as those holding the children hostage…" raising the remote control, he zoomed in the satellite image so that one of the masked men could be seen up close, "they've been there for three hours now and our satellite imaging has confirmed that all five targets still have the safeties engaged on their weapons. In fact our analysts are beginning to question whether the guns are even loaded."

Rachel nodded, seeming more at ease. Nez looked downright ecstatic.

Mairot smiled. "We have a stealth jet ready and waiting to take you there. I seriously doubt our targets have even considered the possibility of an assault from above." He clapped his hands together. "Your mission. Get there, unarm or disable the group however you see fit, make sure the kids are unhurt, get out before the news crews catch sight of you. We don't want media attention from this – we just want to make sure it ends well."

"And our transportation back? Where should we meet the jet?"

"Well that's the funny thing. It seems our pilots will all be busy for the weekend, but there happens to be an excellently stocked cabin a few miles away with access to some very nice ski slopes. I think the mission would go most smoothly if the two of you lie low there for a few days. Then we'll send someone to come get you."

Jake got up and shook Mairot's hand excitedly. "Thank you, sir!"

Rachel looked a bit doubtful.

Mairot laughed. "Relax, Ms. Leeds. N-Tek has had very little on its plate lately. I firmly believe that if the two of you came straight back here you would spend the entire weekend doing nothing anyway. Besides," his voice softened, "the tone here after our two losses has been somber lately. It drags on people. Gets into their minds. The fewer agents I can have exposed to that kind of negativity the better. It makes people paranoid, jumpy. We don't need that."

"What I need," he continued, standing up, "is to know that we are doing some good out there. That I can use this new position to help the world, to make it a better place. The mission I'm sending you on is not an unimportant one. I want this organization to remember why it was built, to be reminded of what's important. We're not just here to save ambassadors and presidents. We're here to ensure the safety of as many people as possible. Children, politicians, it doesn't matter. Go do what this company was meant for. And then take the weekend to relax and take care of yourselves. God knows you've earned it as much as anybody else."


	13. Chapter 13

As Josh paced through the living room talking animatedly on the cell phone that was certainly becoming part of his head, Laura struggled to make spaghetti. She had never really been much of a cook, but she wanted to do something special for Josh. He'd been so busy lately with his new career, but she was certain that if she could make him one of his favorite dinners, he would slow down and they could spend a few minutes together.

It's not like she never had time with him, she admonished herself as she stared into the pot of water on the stove that refused to boil. They still made love every night, even though just like all the other areas of his life that didn't involve his new career, Josh had been putting less and less effort into that as well. She shook herself. Always complaining lately. What did she have to complain about? She lived in a beautiful apartment in one of the most exciting cities in the U.S., and she would never have to work a day in her life. She had access to Josh's credit cards and he had given her full permission to use them to her heart's content.

She supposed she was just being moody. Her attention back to the current task, she scowled as she added another pinch of salt into the water. _Why wouldn't it boil?_ Sulking, she stirred it a little, hoping the little bubbles she wanted to see rising to the top just needed help being released. After a minute, she gave up and slouched back against the counter. Patience had never been her strong suit.

As Josh passed the archway to the kitchen for the twentieth time, he was somewhat irritated to see Laura relaxing against the counter. As his girlfriend, she didn't have to do much of anything – was it so hard for her to put some energy into just this one thing?

He began planning his day mentally as his agent babbled about budgets and promotions.

"Josh, are you listening?"

"Yeah, I like the blue uniforms."

There was a brief silence on the other end. "I haven't been talking about uniforms for forty minutes."

Josh sighed. "So what are you talking about now?"

Another pause as the person on the line held back an angry response. "I was asking if you would consider the possibility of using your father's death to get the sympathy of the public. Public relations and all that, but I understand if you think it's too soon-"

Josh nodded as he examined his fingernails. "Yeah, it's fine. Do whatever works. You're the expert."

"Good, ok. I also wanted to get your opinion on-"

Josh tuned back out, realizing how hungry he was. Twenty more minutes had passed since he had seen Laura slouched against the counter and although she was now hovering over the pot again, he noted that the box of spaghetti remained unopened.

"Look, what was your name again? Janet?"

His agent of several months bit back another scathing reply. "Joan. My name is Joan."

"Ok, close enough. Look Joan, I'll be honest with you. Right now, I'm too hungry to focus on much of anything. How about you buy dinner and we'll talk about whatever else needs discussing."

Although social time with the young man was not something she wanted, Joan knew she would have a much easier time of keeping his attention in a face to face meeting. "I'll meet you at Carmine's."

"Sounds good." Hanging up the phone, he glanced towards the kitchen as he got his coat. He opened his mouth to tell her he was going out but was interrupted by a shriek followed by a splatter and a clang.

He poked his head through the doorway, seeing the huge puddle of steaming water, the pot on the floor next to the fridge, and Laura white-faced clutching her hand.

"What the hell happened?"

Tears came to her eyes as she felt her skin begin to sting. "I was just trying to pour some water out of the pot. There was too much and-"

Josh glanced towards her hand. "Well, you're ok, right?"

She hesitated, wondering if she should tell him the truth. That she was in agony, that she might need to go to the hospital. Instead she clamped her teeth together and nodded her head.

"All right. Well, I was just about to go to dinner with Joan anyway, so don't worry about the spaghetti. Make sure you clean this up though – it'll leak through to the guys downstairs, and they're big fans."

He took her silence as agreement. "Don't wait up."

She waited for the door to close behind him before she sunk down onto a dry section of the floor, clutching her right hand and sobbing. She saw how bright red it was through the gaps in her fingers, but she couldn't bring herself to look at it. She just knew it was the worst pain she'd ever felt. She put her head down onto her knees, wanting to disappear. She knew the water must already be eating its way through the gaps in the grout, but she couldn't even make herself stand up. She had never felt so alone.

She didn't know how long she had been huddled there on the floor. Her hand throbbed, making every minute seem like an eternity. She kept telling herself that she was just being a baby, that if she just waited a little bit, it would stop hurting so much.

When the door opened, she was sure Josh had come back from dinner. She frowned. Surely she hadn't been sitting around doing nothing for _that_ long. The shocked voice that accompanied the entrance of a new person into the apartment, however, was not that of her boyfriend.

"Laura? …What the hell are you doing down there?"

Hearing Pete's voice, she sunk lower into herself. Josh seeing her like this was one thing – after all, _he_ was her boyfriend. Pete, on the other hand, was a completely different story. There was still water all over the floor, her hand was most likely hideous, and she could tell that the tears that had soaked her face had dragged her eyeliner down her cheeks.

Pete hurried to her side, kneeling down next to her. "Josh called and asked me to help you clean up all this water. So, no worries we'll have it done in no time." He smiled brightly, putting an arm around her consolingly.

She didn't look up. If anything, she felt worse. Not only was she in horrible pain, not to mention now an unpresentable mess in front of Pete, but Josh hadn't even thought her capable of cleaning up a spilled pot of water.

"Hey," he said, frowning. "Come on, it's only water. It happens. Laura, look at me."

Instead of looking up, she let herself fall into him, sobbing again. As humiliated as she was, she hadn't had someone to hold her in so long. As she felt him embrace her, pulling her towards him the rest of the way, she hated herself for starting to cry again.

Although shocked and confused, Pete said nothing. No false promises that everything was going to be ok, no shushing tears that had every right to flow. He just held her tighter and waited until she was done.

It was several minutes before she was able to regain control of herself. Sniffling, eyes still brimming with tears, she apologized. "Pete…I'm so sorry."

"You know you have nothing to be sorry about," he shrugged, trying to be nonchalant. "Now, I'm going to get you some tissues, and then I'll clean up the water. Sound good?"

Still unable to meet his gaze, she nodded.

"All right," he smiled again. She seemed to be doing a little better. He left to rummage around the apartment, quickly returning with some old towels and a box of tissues. "Here you are," he knelt down on one knee to present the cardboard box to her in a theatrical manner, hoping to cheer her up.

"Thanks," she sniffed. She unclamped her left hand from her right for the first time since she had burned it and gasped as the pain renewed itself.

"Hey!" Alarmed, Pete dropped the tissues. "What's wrong? What happened?"

She tried to keep out of his reach as he rushed to see what had hurt her, but was too weak to put up much of a fight. Gently pulling her shielded right arm towards him, he bit back a yelp when he saw the damage. The whole area was bright red and the skin covering the hand itself had begun to peel and ooze.

He cursed under his breath. "Laura, you need to go to the hospital."

The answering sound was somewhere between a scoff and a whimper.

He frowned. "I'm serious."

Her eyes still wet from crying, she glared up at him the best she could. "I'm not. Going. To the hospital."

If she had been almost anyone else in the world, he would have argued. But years of friendship had forced him to learn that Laura Chen was not a person you could help if she didn't want to listen. He'd failed at getting her to dump Josh years before when they had first started going out, and he knew better than to ever challenge her resolution again.

"Ok…" he said slowly. "At least let me get the first aid kit out of the car and do what I can here at the apartment."

She nodded, happy for the first time that Pete had agreed to be Josh's manager. She doubted that your average person carried a first aid kit as extensive as those charged with taking care of adrenaline-giddy daredevils.

As soon as the front door closed behind him she slumped back, relieved he had come, even though she would never admit it to anyone out loud. To do that would be to admit she had needed help – not her favorite thing to do.

He was gone less than a minute – surprised, she realized he must have sprinted up and down the three flights of stairs. For her. Because he was worried about her.

Although she was secretly pleased by this, she scowled instead. "It's not an emergency, you know."

He said nothing, but rolled his eyes as he put the kit down on the counter and bent down, putting his arms around her before she had a chance to object. In one fluid movement he stood up, lifting her, and turned to the counter.

"I could have done that myself," she muttered, holding on to him a few seconds longer than necessary as he put her down on the counter.

His mouth twitched slightly. "I know."

They were both quiet as he treated the wound carefully, his hands always gentle and steady. Securing the ace bandage he had wrapped around the burn gel and gauze, he looked up at her and saw that she had already been looking at him. As soon as their eyes locked, he leaned forward, knowing he was done for.

They'd both had other kisses before, but never like this one. Leaning into each other, they seemed truly connected. All those years of denial, of quieted tension, of caring for each other when no one else was there, all was channeled through that one passionate kiss.

It was over as suddenly as it had begun. Pete pulled away suddenly, his face a mixture of longing and horror. Laura, already overwhelmed from the day, was still lost in a daze for a few seconds afterward. She was jolted out of her fog by the sound of the door as it slammed shut behind him.

She remained sitting alone on the counter cradling her bandaged hand with her feet dangling a foot from the floor. The kitchen electronics blinked and shone, the only sound the ticking of the living room clock.

"Pete…"


	14. Chapter 14

All N-Tek scientists who worked with what the company deemed to be "hazardous materials" were required to undergo toxicology screenings once a month. In case one of them got sick from their work, it was much cheaper to treat whatever it was in the early stages. Usually it was all just perfunctory – nothing for any of them to actually worry about. After all, they always took the necessary safety precautions.

Dr. Roberto Martinez blinked as he stared down at his monthly medical report. He had known the risks in getting involved with gamma ray radiation when he signed all those release forms in the beginning. He had imagined it from time to time, as all people dealing with morbid possibilities tended to do. He had imagined himself scared, perhaps crying…definitely calling his mother.

He was surprised, however, to find himself staring down at the results paper claiming him to have a brain tumor completely calm. He supposed this is what it felt like to be in a state of shock. He felt nothing, no fear, no panic, and raising his hand in front of him, found it to be completely steady.

How strange.

According to the treacherous document in front of him, Dr. Roberto Martinez currently had a tumor the size of a golf ball in his brain. In the back of his brain, to be precise, right above the cerebrum – the area of the organ that controls breathing, the cardiovascular system – basically everything one needs to go on living.

There was nothing on the paper that said "inoperable," but there were no recommended steps for treatment either. On one plane, where logic reigned and emotion had yet to hit, he thought to himself he might as well go out and get drunk. Maybe try some of those mind-altering drugs he had always stayed away from growing up. He laughed a little as he remembered all the work he had put into keeping his brain healthy.

As the realization finally hit emotionally, he sighed, devastated. All his life he had been brilliant – he'd brought beautiful things to life with his own hands – created technologies that had actually saved lives – he'd seen them in action. And now, it was his brain that was under attack by science. Science, nature, whatever you wanted to call it, the result was the same.

Putting down the piece of paper, he went to his desk to make sure all his insurance paperwork was in order. Stacking it all together neatly, he put it in his briefcase. He left a note letting his co-workers know he was going on leave, and then left N-Tek to go check himself into the local hospital.


	15. Chapter 15

It hadn't been long after Jefferson Smith fired him that he had realized the only other appealing job opportunity in town. The word was out that John Dread paid well, offered his employees great benefits, and he currently had no other offers of employment. It had all been very easy. John Dread was always more than happy to meet with disgruntled N-Tek employees, especially ones with such an extensive knowledge of genetic alteration and experience in experimenting on live subjects.

He just happened to have a live subject in question who was ready for some genetic alteration himself. Once he had explained the situation, Klemo had been intrigued. He had heard a lot about the boy genius's nano-tek experiments, but he had never thought any of them would ever work. He had examined the science behind the machines bonding with human tissue and found it highly unlikely, at best.

Yet, here he was. Sitting in the lab next to Dread's favorite plaything – Psycho – and as he watched the monitors, the integration he witnessed was undeniable. He supposed the man must have had some sort of advantage, seeing that his body had already once bonded with foreign mechanical parts. Klemo had spent many nights reading through Dr. Martinez's work, observing his progress. There were very few truly novel studies in the science world these days, and the young man had quite a head for the technology.

The recently hired doctor drummed his fingers on the counter as he contemplated the situation. The signs of successful integration were all there – although anyone who didn't have previous knowledge would just think the cyborg was dying. The parts of him that were still human were pale, his breathing and heart rate were in the critical range, and the number of nanomachines had multiplied and spread to the rest of his system – they could even be found in the hair follicle samples Klemo had used for analysis.

He regarded his subject, intrigued. All this time he'd never actually thought he'd have the opportunity to see a successful integration. Of course, he knew now what no one else did – the last step needed for the full process to be completed – an infusion of transphasik energy. The lab had a small generator on hand – not that anyone knew it could be used in this instance. DREDD kept it around to power their machinery.

He tossed a scalpel up and down, twirling it and thinking. It was obvious that Psycho's body had successfully accepted the nanoprobes. All he needed was the transphasik for the transformation to be complete. One infusion and he would be N-Tek's worst nightmare – no one would be able to beat him.

However.

He put the scalpel down decisively. N-Tek had been good to him for many years. He had nothing against the company. The only one that had ever treated him unfairly was Jefferson Smith, and he had been dealt with. The score had been settled, and while he was now employed by a competing company, he surely had no interest in handing over N-Tek's certain destruction to DREDD.

He sat down and continued to watch his patient passively for the next few hours until his heart rate slowed, breathing stopped, and the monitors declared the cyborg officially dead. Klemo had called in the coroner and set about sterilizing the lab with a machine powered by transfasik batteries.

No one would ever have to know.


	16. Chapter 16

"Laura, we shouldn't be doing this," he panted, trying to force his shirt back down.

'Why?" she asked carelessly between kisses.

"Because," he strained, grabbing both her wrists with one of his hands and holding them together, "Josh is my best friend. And your boyfriend. And it's wrong."

She smiled coyly. "A lot of things in this world are wrong. Are you really going to go out and try to fix them all?"

He sighed. "We both dropped out of college. All we have as a means of a job, of monetary support are through him. If you won't think about it morally, at least think of it logically. If he finds out, we'd lose everything."

She sighed, exasperated as her struggles to free her hands proved futile. "Then we won't let him find out."

He let go of her, throwing his hands up in the air. "With all the press constantly stalking him? He's the hottest star in the extreme sports world – you know it's not going to be long before they start paying attention to your personal life too!"

She frowned, staring down at her right hand. It had been a month since the accident with the pot of water. Since the first kiss. When Josh had come home and seen the bandage, he'd demanded to see what was wrong, even though she told him it wasn't good to expose it to air. She still remembered his disgusted face when he saw it. He had insisted at once that they go to the hospital – although she would have to drive since he'd had a few too many drinks while out to dinner.

While she had refused to go with Pete, she had felt too guilty at the time to argue with Josh. Besides, she had been a little relieved. Asking to go to the hospital was a lot different than her boyfriend making her do so. It was the first time he'd really done anything to take care of her since they'd made the move to Los Angeles.

Since the injury was still very severe, she had assumed that once at the hospital they would head straight for the emergency room, or at least the burn unit. She was slightly confused when Josh instead guided her towards the plastic surgery wing.

"Josh, I need burn treatment."

He patted her shoulder reassuringly. "I know, babe, don't worry about it."

The burn had started throbbing again after he'd insisted on taking off the wrapping to see it, and all she wanted was to feel better. She'd had enough for once day.

It seemed that as soon as they arrived in the definitively more posh area of the hospital, a surgeon was there to take them into one of the exam rooms – no questions asked, no paperwork filled out. Laura had the uneasy feeling that money had changed hands.

The doctor ushered them into the room, closing the door behind them. "I hear you have a rather serious burn." She spoke directly to Laura, eyeing her bandaged right hand. "Do you mind if I have a look?"

Laura swallowed hard, inwardly despairing at the thought of the injury being exposed to the air once again. Nodding her consent, she braced herself as the woman gently unwound the wrapping. She was very much aware the second the last layer had come off, as the burn stung, bringing fresh tears to her eyes.

The doctor nodded sympathetically. "That's a bad one. How'd it happen?"

Laura sighed, remembering what a fiasco the night had been. "I dropped a pot of boiling water."

The doctor nodded thoughtfully as she carefully turned the hand one way and then the other. "Yep, that'll do it."

Josh subtly glanced at the clock in the corner of the room. "So, what do you think?"

The woman answered Josh's question but still spoke directly to her patient. "If you'd be willing to stay overnight, we could perform a grafting procedure in a few hours, keep you for observation until tomorrow afternoon, and then you can go home with a bandage."

Josh leaned forward eagerly. "So it'll look ok in a week?"

The doctor but her lip before replying, changing the answer that had been her first response to the boy. "As long as she takes care of it and doesn't use or stretch it, it should be…presentable…within a week. The tissue damage is pretty severe, so it won't be completely healed in that short amount of time but it won't be ghastly to look at anymore…no offense," she smiled down at Laura.

Josh beamed. "Great!"

She nodded in response. "I'll see a nurse about getting a room ready."

Laura watched as the door closed behind the woman, then regarded Josh suspiciously. "Why does it matter what it'll look like in a week?"

He grinned. "Well, of course I wanted to surprise you, but…we're going to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated."

She blanched. "Um…what?"

He moved to sit next to her, taking her good hand in his. "A photographer is going to document my proposal to you. And it's going to be on the Sports Illustrated cover for February. They're doing a feature on sports stars and the girls in their lives and we're going to be the front page!"

"Your…proposal?" Suddenly she began to feel the affect of the pain pills she had taken before they had left for the hospital. "When did you propose?"

"Well, not yet of course. A week from now. The magazine wanted it to be authentic."

She laughed nervously. "What if I wasn't going to say yes?" she asked, only half-joking.

He rolled his eyes before standing up and kissing her on the forehead. "I'm glad your hand is ok."

The absent look in her eyes as she thought back to that day in the hospital three weeks ago did not go unnoticed by the man whose lap she was sitting on.

"Hey." He put a finger under her chin and lifted her head until her eyes met his. "Laura…is there something you're not telling me?"

She swallowed hard and nodded. She had to be honest with at least one person in her life.

"What is it," he asked gently.

She leaned forward and kissed him once more – not like the hurried passionate ones from earlier, but long and slow. As she pulled back, she looked at him sadly, and then got up to remove something from her purse.

He felt cold as he looked at the large diamond ring she slid onto her finger.

She turned back towards him and shrugged helplessly, tears streaming down her face.

"He proposed."


	17. Chapter 17

When Mairot had told them about the orphanage task, Rachel and Jake had been delighted. Rachel was thrilled to have a mission that they should be able to complete easily and have time to relax. Yes, even the great Rachel Leeds needed a break every once in a while. Jake was just excited to do something that involved children. Every time he was able to help a kid in the line of duty he felt like he had found his true calling, like what he was doing actually mattered.

Unbeknownst to any at N-Tek, he idolized Jim McGrath – the biological father of Jefferson Smith's adopted son. The man himself had died before Jake Nez had ever started working at N-Tek, but Jake had stumbled upon a collection of the hero's old mission logs and had hung on every word. When the agent spoke about making the world a better place for his son, Nez knew he'd never felt a connection to the words of another man as he had felt right then.

Needless to say, he was stoked on the flight over. Rachel couldn't help but join in his enthusiasm – when the agent was in a good mood it was truly infectious. They were both excited to save some kids, disappear into the night, and enjoy some alone time.

The blueprints Mairot had provided them with had shown the orphanage to be even larger than it looked from the outside. Because the building was in such a secluded and hostile area, it needed to be all inclusive. It needed to house one hundred and fifty-six children, not to mention a fully functioning hospital, exercise compound, separate dormitories for children and their caretakers, administrative floor, and chapel. In all, there were ten floors - eight of them being underground to lessen damage from the harsh weather.

It was very easily getting in – it was an orphanage, after all, not a military compound, and Rachel supposed the hostage takers had their hands more than full as they tried to keep one hundred fifty-six children under control. In no time at all, they were sequestered in the top floor with a perfect vantage point of the situation. Peering down through a railing, they were able to see all five of the men controlling the situation. They had herded the children and some adults into one room but had made the mistake of choosing one with a few too many doors. At all times, there was a minimum of one man running out of the room after a shrieking child.

Taking out a pair of binoculars, Rachel was able to see that Mairot had been right – all the safeties on the guns were still engaged. Relieved, she knew that at the very least, no one down there would accidentally shoot anyone else. While she was noting the weapons situation, Jake had been counting the children.

"Rachel…there are only one hundred fifty-five kids down there."

She blinked. "How could you possibly count them all? They keep running around."

"One's missing," he insisted urgently.

She threw her hands up. "And there are three hundred staff members on file and only about twelve down there. What about them?"

"Adults can take care of themselves." His eyes darted around the mass of people below, hoping another child would somehow materialize.

"It could have been adopted, or taken out with a family for the day. It _is_ an orphanage, you know. The goal is to have the kids find somewhere else to live."

He shook his head slightly, still staring down at the children below.

"Look," she took his hand. "The longer we wait, the more time we give the local authorities to make things go from under control to chaos. We'll take the stairs, burst through and hit all the hostage takers with tranquilizers. Three for me, two for you – they won't have time to ready their weapons and fire."

It had sounded simple enough, and at first it had gone well. Rachel took down all her targets and Nez was just about to down his second when the individual grabbed a child and used her to shield himself. Nez instantly lowered his weapon, not willing to take the risk. Rachel fumbled with her gun, trying to reload it as quickly as she could in order to take the man down herself. It was jammed. Of course.

"For god's sake, it's only a tranquilizer!" she yelled frantically.

"For a full-grown adult! It might kill a child!"

The next few seconds seemed to happen in slow motion as the man grinned slowly and reached into his pocket. It was at that moment they realized why the safeties hadn't been on – they didn't need guns. They had a bomb.

"DOWN!" she screamed, diving back towards the stairs.

Nez flew towards the girl the man had just pushed away from himself, determined to shield her and as many other children as he could from the blast.

As the man pressed the button on the detonator, there was no loud explosion – no fireball. Just a distant rumbling. Rachel understood what it meant instantly. "The explosives are on the bottom of the building! Everyone against the walls! Tight as you can! NOW!"

Everyone rushed to whatever safety they could find. With the exception of the bomber. From Rachel's position in the doorway, she could see him standing calmly, watching the chaos around him. She would never forget the evil that radiated from the man as the floor opened up from under him. He didn't scream as he fell.

The children did. They screamed as the center of the floor caved in, breaking apart and falling down the newly created ten story canyon. Rachel noted gratefully that the floor held for a good ten feet bordering each wall. They were all safe for the time being, however there was no telling how long everything would hold.

She cursed as she scrambled to her feet. This was supposed to have been so simple. She ran to join the rest of the survivors and embraced Jake, who had a child clinging to each leg.

"Everything's fine," he whispered soothingly, briefly kissing her on the forehead before breaking away and getting back to business.

"All right everyone, the staff are going to lead the children over to those stairs, down one story, and out the fire exit. That area is still safe, but you need to go quickly and orderly. Please go now." He nodded at a middle-aged woman who had seemed to be the one in charge. She swallowed hard before leading the children out the way he had directed.

He and Rachel watched to make sure they had all made it out. With the exception of the bombers, everyone had lived. Unfortunately, the unconscious men hadn't been able to run for safety and had all fallen into the large crevice.

Moving to the edge and peering down, Rachel gasped softly. The damage really had destroyed the entire center of the building. She could see all the way down to the cement foundation of the bottom floor. She silently thanked whatever powers that be they had escaped with their lives.

As she turned back, she saw the last of the civilians disappearing into the stairwell. "All right, she said, turning to Jake, "our turn. Time to get to that cabin and-" she stopped when saw the expression on his face.

He stared back at her, looking stricken. "Rachel – we can't leave."

She began to ask what the hell he was talking about when she heard it too. The unmistakable sound of a child crying. "There _was_ another one," she stated bleakly.

"It sounds like she's down too floors. We have to go."

"Jake," she objected, knowing that everything had gone too well so far, that they had been too lucky.

He glared at her. "We _have_ to go, Rachel."

She snapped out of it, ashamed that she had been thinking of leaving a child to die. Feeling sick, she ran for the stairs, Jake right behind her.

Once they had gone down two flights, Rachel burst through the heavy door. If it hadn't been for Jake grabbing her around the waist and throwing himself backwards, she would have fallen. The floor had been destroyed not only by the initial cave in, but also by the descent of the rubble from above. All that remained was a small outcropping on the far end of the floor still connected to the threshold of the stairwell by a haphazard steel beam. Looking across to the other side, they both saw the child at the same time. Even though she was roughly eighty feet away, they could both clearly make out her red hair, her freckled face, her frantic grey eyes.

"Jake-" she grabbed for him, again hearing that little voice in the back of her head telling her that everything had gone too well – that things don't just go perfectly without something horrible happening to ruin them.

He gently removed her hand. "Rachel…that's a child who needs someone to save her. You know we can't just turn our backs."

Biting her lip, she looked around frantically for another solution, but knew there was none. "Be careful."

Even as he nodded, he was tentatively putting his left foot on the steel beam. It creaked a little as he put his right one down after it, taxing the piece of metal with his full weight.

It was the longest minute of her life – watching the man she one day hoped to marry, to have children of her own with, slowly travelling farther and farther out of her reach. She couldn't believe it when he finally got to the end. The child, who had been until then pressed up terrified against the wall, threw her arms around him, holding on like a steel vice. Turning back towards Rachel, he beamed at her over the child's shoulder.

"Ok," he spoke soothingly to the child. "We're going to move now – all you need to do is keep your eyes closed and hold tight to me."

He felt the small form tighten its grip and nod.

"Good," he continued. "Now you just count to 200 nice and slow, and when you're done you'll be safe. Then you'll get you meet my pretty girlfriend. You'll like her."

Holding the girl in case she panicked and let go, he stepped back onto the beam. After three slow steps, he began to sweat. The creaking was much louder than it had been previously. The girl didn't weigh all that much – 40 pounds tops - but he wondered if that 40 pounds was just too much.

He forced himself to stop thinking about it as he focused only on getting to the other side as soon as possible. Everything was going to be fine. They were going to get married, start a family – maybe even adopt this beautiful grey-eyed child in his arms. They had a future, damn it, of course he was going to make it.

Watching from safety, Rachel looked on, almost unable to breathe. She knew she had never been more aware of the beating of her heart, of the passing of each second.

It was on his seventeenth step – almost directly in between the two sides, that the groan of the beam became a slow, building shriek. Jake looked up as he felt the solid surface begin to give. Her eyes connected with his, and in a split second that seemed to last forever, she saw the pain and regret etched in his face.

"I'm sorry," he choked, hugging the girl tightly.

The beam finally gave, dropping Nez and the child out of sight.

"NO!" she shrieked as she ran to the edge, a hundred different rescue attempts flashing through her mind. Of course he was going to be fine. The building hadn't splintered in any specific way – surely they had landed on some outcropping a few floors down. Maybe he had a few broken bones, but she would nurse him though the hard times. It would be –

All hope vanished as she finally took in what she was seeing. The two bodies at the bottom of the ten-story drop, still intertwined. The beam had landed on top of them, of course, leaving no hope of survival.

As her eyes registered the size of the blood puddle spreading out around them she threw herself away from the gap and got sick.


	18. Chapter 18

Dr. Klemo had rarely felt himself under so much pressure while cleaning a room before. That probably had something to do with Mr. John Dread sitting a few yards away contemplating the dead cyborg on the operating table in front of him.

Dread didn't know that Klemo had let Psycho die. He couldn't. There was no proof. Klemo gulped anyway as he moved to clean the area closest to his boss – something he'd been putting off by completing every other conceivable task first. He glanced up to see if he was being observed and accidentally met John Dread's contemplative stare.

The scientist cleared his throat nervously. "Almost done here."

Dread gave him a small smile. "I'm not angry, you know."

He knew his guilty conscious was twisting everything the other man said to be six times worse than it was probably intended, and so decided to limit his verbal response to "Oh?"

"After further discussion with my most respected friend and colleague, I've come to the conclusion that an enhanced version of Psycho would be impossible to control – dangerous even. So, I think it's probably better this way." He sighed and leaned back in the chair. "Anyway, what I'd like to speak to you about is a substitute project. We need a powerful weapon, but I am now of the opinion that super-powered agents are not the right way to go."

Klemo nodded thoughtfully, no longer worried for his life, but rather intrigued. He was a man of science after all, and was immediately pulled into the conversation.

"Doctor, do you have any experience with infinity ice?"

The scientist nodded vigorously. "Extensive experience, sir."

Dread nodded, as if Klemo were only confirming what he already knew to be true. "Excellent. At the moment, it takes us roughly three weeks to make one vial of the substance. My goal, and therefore the organization's goal, is to get a system running so that we can mass-produce. What do you think?"

"I think it's a brilliant idea," Klemo responded enthusiastically. "As soon as I'm done here I'll get started on it!"

Dread stood up, clapping his hands together with a sort of finality. "Why wait? I already have a lab up and running for you by the cryogenic chambers. I'll have some less valuable employees spend their time finishing up here."

The scientist brightened. "Thank you sir! You won't regret this. You'll have so much infinity ice, you won't know what to do with it all!"

Dread laughed. The man made him feel like some sort of indulgent parent. "Go on now, make me proud."

Klemo wasted no time abandoning his cleaning materials and scampering off towards his new lab.

Dread stood up and considered the still form on the table in front of him. "I'm truly sorry it didn't work out, my old friend." With nothing else to say, he left the lab somberly. It wasn't that he had ever felt close to the cyborg, but there had been many times when Psycho was the only one he could count on.

As if to remind him of how much his life had changed as of late, Dragonelle was waiting for him in the hallway, a hopeful expression on her face.

A pleasant feeling of calm came over him as he took in the sight of her beaming at him. They had both changed so much.

She blushed as she noticed him studying her face. After all this time, she still refused to believe he found her beautiful. "Well?" she prompted gently.

"My dear," he said, putting his arm around her as they walked down the hall together, "tonight we toast to infinity ice – the future of DREDD."

She laughed in a light-hearted way she couldn't remember ever hearing from herself and leaned her head on his shoulder as they walked. She was going to be married to the man of her dreams, the future of DREDD was brighter than ever – she couldn't recall ever being so happy in her life.


	19. Chapter 19

A/U: This was _really_ not supposed to be an epic fic…Thanks for everyone who has stuck with it (and me) – love you guys :P

Laura stood outside watching Josh perform yet another half-pipe routine. It must have been the tenth he'd performed that week, and they were all starting to seem remarkably similar. He never deviated from the routine he had decided on before the event, he never messed up. To be perfectly honest with herself, Laura didn't even have to watch her boyfriend…_fiancé_, she mentally corrected herself – perform. She knew from watching him at practices (which she was also expected to attend) exactly what the performance would look like. It's not like her detailed critique was expected anyway – all he wanted to hear was how great he was.

Whatever.

For once, pleasing Josh was not really what was on the top of her list of priorities. As if to add reality to her thoughts, she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She pulled out the new phone Josh had bought for her – he had paid Apple twice the amount to have them make her a pink one – even though her favorite color was green. She didn't really care. It was expensive and she liked it.

Glancing at the screen, she saw it was who she had hoped and turned her back on her fiancé's half-pipe routine to answer it.

"Hi Pete," she answered, smiling.

"Hi Beautiful. What's the news for tonight?"

"Everything's perfect. He's going out with the owners of Sports Illustrated tonight. They're going to sign him for some promotional stuff."

"What kind of promotional stuff?" Pete asked, sounding a little irate upon hearing that once again as a manager he was being left out of major decisions.

"To be honest, I wasn't really paying attention to the specifics. All I heard was the dollar signs as they went whooshing by."

He laughed despite his temporary flare of annoyance. "All right, so your place will be free tonight?"

She leaned back against the metal railing behind her, closing her eyes in satisfaction. "Oh, Pete, wait 'til you see this new place. I almost couldn't believe it when he showed it to me."

"Is this the house in Beverly Hills?"

She waved her hand dismissively, even though he couldn't see the gesture. "No, no, that was two places ago. This is the penthouse, in LA."

"You guys switch where you're living so often it's hard to keep up," he grumbled.

She laughed. "Hey, it's not my fault he likes spending all his money. That ESPN contract really did it for us."

He hesitated. "Honestly, I don't get what they see in him. I mean, yeah he's great at sports, but have they **met** the guy?"

Laura sighed. "Producers love a camera whore and, well, that's what they've got."

Hearing the sound of applause, she turned back around and as if to prove her point there was Josh, waving at his fans with his arm around some kid with a broken leg. She felt nauseated. "All right, I've got to go. See you at 8?"

"Great." Ending the call, she looked up and plastered on an enthusiastic-looking smile as Josh made his way over to her.

"That was amazing Josh!" she screeched, throwing her arms around him.

"Were you watching?" he asked skeptically, frowning.

"Of course I was baby," she cooed back.

He pulled away, glaring at the still lit up phone in her hand. "Who were you talking to?"

She rolled her eyes. "My brother, Josh. You know, the one that's about to propose to his girlfriend? He needed some sisterly advice."

He nodded. "Can I see the call log?"

She stared at him. "Are you serious?"

"I'd like to see it."

She tightened her grip on the phone. "It's mine – you have no right to snoop through my personal belongings."

"Who paid for it?"

She glared at him in response, not having an argument to come back with.

He held out his hand for the phone.

Fuming, she slammed the device into his outstretched palm, then stormed off into the crowd.

Ignoring her, he unlocked the phone and opened up the list of most recent calls. He stared at the latest one. "Huh."

The call details read 'Mike Chen, Incoming call 2:35 Thursday, October 11, 2000 3 mins 2 secs'. Glancing at the time, he saw it was now 2:40. It was pretty impossible for her to have made any other calls in between hanging up and his appearance.

Now turning to look for her, he cursed under his breath as he saw his limo pulling away from the curb across the park. She was angry.

He sighed as he used the pink phone to call for another car. Unaccustomed to handling the sensitive touch-screen, he accidentally hit the redial button. Tapping at the screen hurriedly to prevent the call from going through, he was relieved when the phone ended the attempt before it rang on the other end. That's all he wanted – to get stuck talking to a man frantically planning his engagement proposal. No way.

_Really dodged that one_, he laughed to himself, relieved, as he dialed the number for his backup driver.

"Good afternoon Mr. McGrath, how are you?"

"Hey Joe, pick me up at the X games practice event park."

"Sure thing Mr. McGrath. When would you like to schedule the pickup for?"

"Now."

"All right, I'll be there as soon as possible."

"Great."

Laura had been back at the penthouse for over an hour already when she heard the elevator arrive at their floor. She gulped, glancing over to the closet by the door where her packed suitcase was hidden.

She picked up a fashion magazine, trying to look casually pissed off instead of nervous. As the door opened, she turned a page and finished the line she was reading before allowing her eyes to drift up towards her fiancé. And the enormous fur coat he was holding.

"What's that?" she asked coldly, having to make a conscious effort to keep the excitement out of her voice.

"A very expensive fur coat," he answered, forcing an apologetic tone into his voice. He willed himself not to look at his watch, although it was difficult – he didn't know how long forgiveness was going to take this time, and he had a very important dinner to get to.

She made a show of regarding the coat appraisingly, making him sweat a little. That episode with the phone had really just been too close for comfort. She had to make sure he would think twice before doing anything like that ever again. If she didn't have an appointment of her own to see to, she would have considered making him late for his Sports Illustrated meeting.

"Josh…I don't understand what happened before with the phone. What made you act like that?"

"I was confused."

"Confused? Confused about what?"

"I just didn't know who you would be talking to…it's been a while since we've heard from your family…"

"That's your fault."

"…What?"

"My family has always been traditional. Their daughter moving in with a man she's not married to – one who's not even Chinese – hasn't exactly gained their favor. They don't want anyone in the family speaking to me, so Mike has to be a little secretive about calling me. I take his calls whenever he tries to reach me because I know it's hard for him. If it's during your events, I'm sorry…but you're so suspicious."

Josh stared at her, trying to decipher her body language, her facial expressions. "Laura, just be straight with me. Are you seeing someone?"

"No way! Josh, I swear I would never! Besides," she gestured around the well-furnished apartment, "look at how well you provide for me. Why would I need anyone else?"

He smiled smugly, relaxing. "Well I guess that's true." He tossed her the coat he had been holding and turned back towards the door. "Gotta go – don't wait up."

"Have fun!" she called after him as the door swung shut.

She lazily picked up the beautiful coat, put it on and sauntered over to the mirror to admire the way she looked in it. Hearing her phone ring a few minutes later, she eagerly crossed the room and picked it up.

Looking at the screen, she saw the caller ID informing her that the call was being placed by Mike Chen. A smiling picture of her brother stared back at her.

Flopping onto the couch contentedly, she answered the phone. "Hi Pete."


	20. Chapter 20

As he lay in the terminal ward of Del Oro Bay Memorial Hospital, Berto Martinez reflected on his life. He had never had many friends. His family wasn't even on the same continent as him. But somehow, he never actually thought he would die alone. He didn't need twenty people surrounding him, constantly fluffing his pillow and asking him if he was all right for all the weeks leading up to this.

It would've been nice though, to have someone there at the last moment. For one single person to bear witness to his death; to the fact that he had once been alive. That he had had dreams and ambitions and passions. That he had once been a little boy on his mother's lap believing her as she told him that he would achieve great things one day.

That memory ached the most as he lay there, tears streaming silently down his face. His mother. He knew he had disappointed her. He hadn't achieved anything – hadn't done anything to make her proud, to earn her love, to justify leaving home. He was ashamed and didn't deserve to look her in the eye, but right now he just wanted to have her there with him. To feel his mother's hands on his face one last time. He knew he would never see her again. Due to his father's illegal activities years ago, his family had been denied passports. They could fight it, but it would take months and Roberto Martinez was out of time.

He had been fighting so hard to hold on – battling for ever second, even though the doctors had come in the week before and gently told him that there was no hope, and that they would make him "as comfortable as possible".

His eyes fell on the small vase in the corner of the room – the only decoration there. He tried to focus his thoughts in a positive way – his employers had cared about him – but he couldn't convince himself. They had spelled his name wrong.

With a shaky sigh, Berto Martinez said goodbye to the world he had hoped to change. He was a man of science. He didn't believe in an afterlife – whether it was fluffy clouds or an inferno. He knew there would only be black. Only nothingness. He didn't care. He was in so much pain. So tired. He knew it was time to let go.

So he did.


	21. Chapter 21

It had been just over a month since Jake Nez had been buried. The ceremony had been beautiful – he had always wanted a spiritual and not a religious ceremony. He wanted his loved ones to get closure, no lectures on how some spirit in the sky had a plan for them all. Due to his job, he had known chances were he'd die as a result of some senseless act of violence and he just wasn't ok with such a thing being attributed to some grand plan. That was cruel.

His whole family was there – parents, six sisters and two brothers. Rachel had never met them before. She didn't go introduce herself. She couldn't see any point in it. As soon as the body had been buried, she got into her car and drove back to N-Tek. She had resigned from her position in her funeral clothes. Jean Mairot offered her bereavement leave, a few months off to think about it, but she had calmly assured him such a thing wouldn't be necessary. He had been unable to do anything but watch sadly as the best agent he had ever known walked out the door for the last time.

Thirty-one days had gone by so fast. It was that day – the day that marked the one-month anniversary of Jake Nez's burial, that the walls of John Dread's office were suddenly shaken by a massive explosion. As the paintings fell off the walls around him, he hit the button that simultaneously locked down his office and paged security. "Report."

"…Sir, we have an intruder."

As he spun in his chair to look at the security monitor behind his desk, he saw a woman striding resolutely through the rubble. His brow furrowed as he struggled to figure out the identity of the person. "Why…I do believe that's Ms. Rachel Leeds," he commented, only half speaking to his head of security listening on the other end of the line.

"I'd heard she quit N-Tek…We've been discussing sending someone to go pay her a visit."

Dread reclined in his chair and considered the ceiling. "Oh, I'll take a chance and say she's not interested."

Rachel Leeds hardly waited for the explosion to finish before she began walking towards the crumbling wall. It'd been forty days since she'd lost him. A man she never even appreciated until he was gone. She was strong, independent – she's lived for so long without him, surely she would be able to carry on after he had gone. But as time passed, her hope of a life after had died. Without him, she could no longer see any joy in her life, any beauty in the world around her. She couldn't remember what it felt like to smile, to sleep without waking up screaming. She didn't have the option to take her pain out on the ones responsible – they had all died in the attack. It didn't matter. She still hurt, he was still gone, and someone needed to pay. She had decided that someone was John Dread.

She pulled out her gun as she heard boots running down the hall towards her location. Way too many of them. She stood calmly, weapon in hand, waiting. What did she care? She'd come here to die.

John Dread had been watching her progress, impressed, for a while. Sighing, he glanced towards his chief of security, who was now in his office with him. "It's a pity she'll never be on our side."

The other man was not so relaxed. "Sir, she's already taken out twenty of our lower management."

Dread waved his hand dismissively. "Doing me a favor really, I was going to have to make cutbacks sooner or later anyway."

The man's face grew red. "Those were all human beings! Some of them had families!"

"Yes," Dread commented, now eyeing the man coldly, "as do you."

His head of security swallowed hard and the color quickly drained from his face. "I'm sorry sir that was out of line."

Dread's mouth formed itself into a smile, although it didn't quite reach his eyes. "The situation is a bit tense. I'll excuse you this one outburst."

He nodded. "Thank you sir."

The battle was invigorating. She had never been allowed to use deadly force so freely before – she felt like a god. She had lead her whole life restrained, controlled. Finally, at the end of her days she could act without boundaries. She honestly didn't know how many she had taken out – she wasn't counting. There was no score, nothing to serve as a comparison once she was done. All she knew was that after a while, they just stopped coming.

She waited, panting, even taking the time to reload both her guns, but no one else came. Waiting? Intimidated? She didn't know, she didn't really care. She knew her mission and she was going to complete it. Even though Rachel Leeds lacked an employer, she still had a job to do. Take down Dread. There had been so many times they had talked about it – argued over it. Why couldn't they just invade and lock them all away? Security threats, red tape, the same bureaucratic shit that kept any great organization anywhere from accomplishing their goal. Today she would do what she had always dreamed of as a law-abiding N-Tek agent. She was going to get rid of John Dread once and for all. Call it her retirement gift to herself.

Deciding that no one else was coming, she turned to the camera monitor on the wall she knew had been watching her exploits until then. Maybe if she was lucky enough Dread himself was even watching. She hoped he was enjoying the show.

Raising one of her guns, she fired a single shot and destroyed the device. While she always enjoyed having someone watch her excel, there was no reason to make it easier for them to find her. She didn't want to get caught before she had achieved her endgame.

She had no problem finding the cryogenic lab – just because N-Tek had never had the justification to storm the place didn't mean they hadn't been ready to do it for years. They all knew the layout of the place.

She wasn't surprised to find herself under fire as soon as she opened the door to the lab. Whether Dread's minions had come here to hide or to protect what they saw as a strategic point was beyond her. It didn't matter now; her job was almost done. She peeked around the doorframe, drawing a spray of gunfire, but was able to judge the general location of her adversaries.

There were roughly fifteen of them – too many for her to try and take out all of them. If she had all the time and ammo she wanted sure, but she had an abundance of neither. If she calculated and thought everything through she knew she could find a way to accomplish her mission and still get out alive, but the time for planning was over. She was done.

Closing her eyes for a few seconds, she summoned up an image of her fiancé, smiling and confident as he had always been.

"I'll see you soon, Jake."

With a deep breath, she launched her remaining grenade through the doorway towards the corner of the room where the remainder of John Dread's employees had gathered, blocking the exit. They thought that's why she had come here? To escape? She had to laugh. So they really had no idea.

She heard the grenade land, heard them shout an alarm, scatter. She waited for the explosion and then bolted through the doorway towards her target. Dread's soldiers were occupied with checking for injuries and trying to extricate themselves from the rubble. No one interrupted her as she went to stand in front of the enormous upright cylinder that held the infinity ice Dread must have been stock piling. No one stopped her as she pressed the muzzle of her gun to the glass that she knew had to have been made brittle by the substance it housed. No one stopped her as she pulled the trigger.

The security man swore as the camera cut out, leaving the two men completely in the dark as to where the rogue agent was. "Where is she?" The man leaned forward, scanning the view.

Dread's response was interrupted by another tremor running through his office.

"What's she blown up now?" the other yelled, frantically cycling through the security feeds, hoping to get some idea of what their attacker was planning.

Concentrating on trying to get the most information as he possibly could from what was going on around him, Dread was suddenly aware that the air being circulated through the ventilation system was slightly cooler than it had been a few minutes ago. "Ah."

"Ah what? What ah?"

The man's leader calmly got up from his chair, poured two glasses of scotch and handed one to the other occupant of the room. "You should have this."

The man blinked at the scotch in his hand. "Why?"

"Because the last thing you drink should be ridiculously expensive."

"Last thing I-" the man shook himself briskly, "whatever she's done we can handle it. Nothing is getting through that door."

Dread took a sip and chuckled darkly. "Not through? Well how about under? Or over? Or even around?"

"What are you _talking_ about sir?"

Tilting the glass back once more, he savored the taste before responding. "You might want to check on the cryogenics lab."

"No…" the man shook his head in slow disbelief as he switched the camera's view to the lab in question, refusing to accept what was going on even as he saw the ice-coated room for himself.

Dread sipped his drink and observed as the man blinked hard a few times, his expression changing from one of disbelief to one of determination.

"We've got to evacuate immediately. Everyone knows how fast that stuff travels."

Dread laughed, watching the man as he started towards the door. "Might you remind me which floor we're on, my friend?"

The man turned around. "Sir, we don't have time for this. Let's go."

"What. Floor." There was an inarguable finality in his superior's voice that forced the man's mind to focus on the other instead of spinning around in circles trying to find a way out of this predicament. "Sub-level eight, sir."

"And might you remind me what sub-level is short for?"

The man gritted his teeth impatiently. "Subterranean level, sir."

Dread nodded and took another sip of his drink, almost seeming to be enjoying all this. "Which would mean we are eight floors below the surface, correct?"

"Yes sir." The man was only half paying attention to the ramblings of his superior now as he mentally went through the floor plan of the building, trying to figure out the fastest evacuation route.

"And just so we have all our facts," Dread continued, knowing that his pawn wasn't paying full attention but that he would be soon enough, "what floor is the cryogenics lab on?"

"Sub-two," came the distracted answer.

Dread took a markedly larger sip of his scotch now. "And the final question, for maximum efficiency, which way does infinity ice travel?"

"Down." The answer came like all the rest, with a dismissive air and distracted tone, but was soon followed by a horrorstruck look of disbelief.

Dread clapped his hands together, pleased that the morbid truth had finally sunk in.

The man paled visibly. "Oh god."

Dread's crowing laughter filled the room. "Now you see. Well, I hope it is obvious to you the situation in which we have found ourselves. You may take this chance to try and escape, although I have accepted my fate so I do ask you to not make the attempt of taking me with you."

"But sir-"

"If you get out alive, you can have a raise. Take what you see fit. I trust you to be honest." He took another gulp of scotch, his laugh now possessing a higher pitch as his desperation began to come through. "Now, if you excuse me, I have a very important message to record. Better get running."

The man hesitated for a moment – everything in him was resisting leaving the older man behind – but finally accepted that John Dread would not be moved and fled.

Finishing the rest of his scotch, Dread followed his employee's progress up the stairs until a horrified look came over his face as he got to sub-level 5. Feeling nothing at his employee's expiration, he turned the camera back to Rachel Leeds in the cryogenics lab.

The bullet had gone straight through the tube, exiting through the other side, causing the ice to exit in that direction instead of towards Rachel, giving her time to watch its progress, to admire her own work.

_God, it sure spreads fast_, she thought as she watched it consume everything it its path. She was just beginning to wonder how long it would be before it took her as well, but that thought was interrupted by the crunch of glass directly behind her.

She turned around casually, not bothering to raise her gun. This is what she had wanted after all.

The man's mask obscured his face, but his fear showed in the way his weapon twitched as he pointed it at her.

With a casual glance around the room, she realized they were the only two left alive.

"Get us out," he demanded.

She laughed.

He put a bullet in her chest.

As she looked down carelessly to see the blood spreading through the shirt she wore, she smiled. "Finally."

She never hit the ground – as life left her body the ice overcame it, freezing her in place. Even in death she remained upright and proud.

Dread nodded his approval as he watched the agent's last moments on the security camera. Rachel Leeds had always known how to get a job done right.

With a sigh, he turned back to his computer. Tomorrow was supposed to be his wedding day. What timing fate had. He supposed if there was on blessing in all of this, it was that his beloved had gone ahead to Pairs that Tuesday to make sure everything was ready. He had planned on leaving that evening to join her. They had spent so much time planning her dream wedding, and now it would be all for naught. He doubted she would be able to get the deposit back for the catering.

Taking note as the temperature of the room continued to drop, he realized he didn't have much time left on the planet to contemplate such things.

With a sigh, he turned back to his computer. He knew he should call her, say goodbye properly, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. She had been the light of his life these past few months. Selfishly, he wanted to keep his memories of her intact, not ruin them by adding sad and panicked ones to the collection. He just couldn't bring himself to taint it. Instead, he clicked on the webcam and set the recording to be sent on a three hour delay. He didn't want her to get it before everything was over. Wanted to make sure the danger had passed by the time she could even consider coming back. With infinity ice, three hours was more than enough. He connected to a web program that would make sure the recording would get sent even after the ice had overtaken his office, leaving his computer a rock and himself a corpse.

Feeling the temperature in the room continue to go down, he nodded grimly to himself. His time was almost up – it was time to start recording. He took one last sip of scotch before setting it to the side – out of sight of the camera. His love was very observant, and at times she tended to read too far into things. He would not have his final message to her be tainted by thoughts of his words being the result of impaired judgment. Thinking of her as he had known her – not as she would be upon seeing this message, he smiled and felt at peace. He was pleased about that. He wanted the recording to be genuine – no false emotions, no forced facial expressions. He pressed the "record" button and began.

"My dear, I believe this may be the first time I've ever been glad that you are not here with me."


	22. Chapter 22

"Please don't be too sad, my dear. I hope that one day we will see each other again. Take care of yourself."

That was the end of it. The end of the recording. The end of everything John Dread would ever say to her.

Ella Long, as she had referred to herself ever since John Dread's proposal sat in front of the laptop he had given her to stay in touch. She had been in the middle of trying on her gown one last time when she'd heard the email alert chime. She had expected some casual pre-wedding message, and had been completely unprepared for what she had received instead. So here she sat, one of the oldest clichés – a woman sitting in her wedding dress, eyeliner running down her face, sobbing over the fact that her groom would not be coming to the wedding.

A few weeks later, it was a quiet day at N-Tek. Jean Mairot had easily made the transition to head of the company, and that day the organization simultaneously celebrated the demise of John Dread and mourned the loss of Rachel Leeds.

In his speech to the members of N-Tek that morning, Mairot had said "she may not have been with us at the end, but Rachel Leeds died as she lived – one of N-Tek's finest."

Things had been uneventful since. It seemed the entire international community – criminals and peacekeepers alike were still reeling from the news.

That's why no one was expecting it when Mairot himself strode through the front door and started shooting.

He was armed with only a standard issue pistol and the element of surprise, but that was more than enough to take out the security team guarding the lobby. The man moved faster than anyone his age had any right to and all the bullets hit their marks. Besides, faithful N-Tek employees found it impossible to fire on their leader without hesitation, while he shot without mercy. They really never stood a chance.

The real Jean Mairot responded to the alarms just as the CEO of N-Tek was supposed to. He calmly but quickly hauled ass to the most secure part of the base – the underground laboratories. He was sure there was nothing to actually be afraid of – this was all probably security's overreacting to a minor threat, but he had been looking for an excuse to visit Ana Yevshenko anyway. He'd been trying to work up the nerve to ask her to dinner – maybe the opportunity would arise. Brightening by this thought, he made his way to the labs with a slightly quickened pace.

His surprise then was understandable when the woman currently occupying his thoughts promptly shot him as soon as he walked through the door.

In the first few seconds, as he watched her stand over him with a gun in her hand and a sad look on her face, he was a bit confused. He wondered briefly if perhaps he was dreaming, or maybe the alarms had been sounded due to some sort of nerve gas attack – something that caused hallucinations, maybe. These thoughts only lasted a few seconds though. No, he was awake, he was lucid, and he was most definitely dying from a gunshot wound in his chest. He could feel the blood soaking through his new shirt in front of the woman he had hoped to ask out to dinner.

How distasteful.

He was still a bit confused as to _why_ it was he apparently had to die, but as he turned his head towards Yevkseno, he saw what she had been watching on her computer monitor prior to his arrival.

Footage of him gunning down the security team.

_Ah_, he thought, now understanding. _Well played, Dragonelle, well played._

He tried to warn the doctor of the danger, but as his vision dimmed, he found himself unable to speak.

_Oh well,_ he sight inwardly. _She'll find out soon enough_.

He died quickly, only suffering for about a minute, and then he was gone. There were no last words, no gasped warning, no dramatic love confession. Just quick and silent death. Mairot had never been one to go about things in an overly verbose manner.

Dragonelle, meanwhile, had a much easier job getting down to the nuclear labs than she had ever through possible. Through some sort of sheer dumb luck, the security system had picked up on the real Mairot walking down a hallway during the time she had ducked inside an empty office to reload. The cameras had locked on and followed him, leaving her blissfully undisturbed. She had never dreamed it would be so easy.

She was just closing the door to the radiation lab behind her when she heard a dull voice come over the loudspeaker and announce "The threat has been neutralized. Repeat, the treat has been neutralized. Medical unit needed at main gate."

_A little late for that,_ she thought grimly. Her marksmanship was one of her best assets. She knew she hadn't left any survivors. She took a moment to congratulate herself on a well-executed and nearly immaculate job. Really, she had Rachel Leeds to thank. She wouldn't have thought of such a bold move previously, but after hearing about the poetry with which the other had gone about avenging her lover, she knew John Dread deserved at least that much. An eye for an eye, after all. She knew John would have been proud. And maybe somewhere, he was. She didn't know what waited after death for people like them. She didn't spend much time considering it. She was going to find out soon enough.

She removed the large sports jacket she wore, humming to herself as she unpacked the significant amount of Semtex she had strapped onto her body. Few people knew that she disguised herself as men as often as women – she didn't publicize it, mostly for vanity's sake. Male forms were actually her main go-to for smuggling situations like this one. The current baggage she carried had actually been a great help to her, adding the extra bulk her body needed to pull of the deception.

It didn't take her much time at all to plant the explosives. This was a demolition effort her and John had spent a long time planning. It took all of eight minutes to get everything ready, blocks of Semtex lining radiation shields that should have been much stronger. She stood in the middle of the roughly crafted circle, quietly saying her goodbyes and reflecting on the past few months.

She had just about come to the end, debating over whether or not she should say some sort of prayer as the door to the lab slowly opened, admitting a very puzzled-looking man in a lab coat.

"What are-"

She supposed her time was up. She made eye contact with the scientist, but addressed someone else as she pressed the detonator.

"For you, John."

And that was the end of N-Tek.


	23. Chapter 23

Charles Marshak had been enjoying his retirement. When N-Tek had "changed leadership" he had taken it as a sign it was time to hang up his uniform. It wasn't that he had anything against Jean Mairot; it was just time.

It wasn't as big a step retiring. Really, it was just like one long weekend. Besides, it wasn't like he was lonely. His home had become the basis for the surviving members of the old guard to congregate. To be honest, he'd been seeing more of them now that they were all retired than when they had all been working at N-Tek. He even had an independent contracting company looking to pay for him to teach its pilots how to fly. It was easy money, he had people come visiting, and there was nowhere he had to report to at 9 am every morning. Everything was going ok.

And why shouldn't it? He'd done his time – he served proudly as one of N-Tek's best. Why shouldn't he enjoy a nice retirement? He'd sure as hell earned it.

He did still wake up early though. Blame it on years of routine, blame it on getting old, but here he was up at 6 in the morning on a Sunday, just like every other day of the week.

It did please him that the delivery guy came by at 5 every day without fail, so the paper was always ready for him to read with his morning coffee.

He shuffled out the door to retrieve it, wearing his 6 am uniform – a bathrobe and slippers, grumbling a bit as he noticed the man had left his paper a bit in the street, and not in the middle of his driveway as he preferred it. The guy was obviously slipping.

He shuffled out to get it, grunting a "morning" to the garbage men who always left his recycling bin tossed carelessly in the middle of his well-kept lawn.

He picked up the paper, pausing to read the headline – "Research base swallowed by ice in freak accident," which took him longer than it would have if he'd put his glasses on.

His head snapped up as he heard his neighbor four houses down shout his name with what he deemed far too much urgency for a 6 am neighborly greeting.

_Fucking civilians._

He waved back begrudgingly. "Yes, good morning Phil."

"CHUCK!"

"I said hello already!" He shouted crossly, making a mental note to move out of suburbia as soon as humanly possible.

His very last mental note, actually, since that was the moment directly preceding the one in which he would be crushed by a garbage truck with a broken backing-up signal.


	24. Chapter 24

"I have you on tape."

Laura rolled her eyes, refusing to look up from the Cosmo article she was reading. "Thanks to you, I'm a public figure now. I'm on TV all the time."

"You know what I mean." Josh glared at her, standing in the doorway, not caring that anyone passing by would be able to hear the coming argument.

Laura kept her face neutral, but sighed inwardly. She'd known it was only a matter of time before they arrived here. She and Pete had hardly been discrete lately. She decided to keep playing the game though, just in case she was jumping to incorrect conclusions.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Joshua."

"Don't call me that."

"Why not? It's your name, isn't it?"

"I have you and Costas together on tape. Out to dinner, checking into motels…through the window of his house."

Well, that was that. "Took you long enough," she muttered.

He blinked, mouth hanging open. "That's it? You're not going to deny it?"

She shrugged casually as she made her way over to the closet and retrieved the suitcase she had packed months ago. "I don't think there would be much of a point in that – do you?"

"But-"

"Would you close the door? I don't think the whole building needs to hear this."

"No. There's nothing to discuss. You're not going to see him anymore."

She seemed to consider this for a moment. "Is that the way this is going to be?"

He folded his arms across his chest, nodding firmly. "Yes. We all make mistakes. As long as you swear to not see him anymore, I can forget this ever happened."

She considered him, a sympathetic look on her face. "Your fiancé cheating on you with your manager would probably hurt your image, wouldn't it?"

"Yes." He looked relieved. "I knew you'd understand."

She stood there for a moment thinking. "Yeah, I'm leaving you." Using the heavy suitcase to barrel past him, she strode down the hallway towards the elevator.

He stood there, frozen, as she pressed the "down" button. It always took some time for the elevator to arrive to the penthouse from the ground floor.

She was tapping her foot impatiently when she saw Josh finally move, storming towards her.

The time for waiting was over. She made a decision and headed instead for the stairs, designer heels clicking on the heavily polished wood floor.

"Don't run away from me in those shoes! I bought you those shoes!"

Fair enough. "All yours, sweetheart!" She had to admit the dumbfounded expression on his face as he ducked the flying pair of Jimmy Choos was priceless.

It only slowed him down for a second though. He had caught up to her by the time she got to the stairwell.

"Laura, stop, let's talk about this." He grabbed her wrist as she put her hand on the railing, halting her progress.

"There's nothing to talk about. I'm leaving you."

"I don't want you to leave."

His grip tightened painfully and she felt threatened for the first time. "Josh, you're hurting me."

"Come back inside." He was in front of her now, back to the stairs, as she struggled against his grip.

"Let go of me!"

"Not until we have a chance to talk." He squeezed harder, trying to pry her hand off the railing.

The heavy suitcase was in her other hand. In a panic, she swung it harder than she meant to.

The object connected powerfully with his midsection, and everything seemed to slow down as he began to fall backwards. So slow, everything seemed to be moving. Slow enough for her to have grabbed onto his shirt as he tilted, stopped him from falling. If she'd wanted to.

Time must have not been moving as slowly for him though, as even with his reflexes he was unable to stop himself from tumbling backward down the 15 concrete steps.

Laura remained at the top of the stairs, clutching her injured wrist and panting as she waited for him to get up.

But he didn't.


	25. Chapter 25

Laura Chen had called 911 and reported an accident. Her fiancé had tried to stop her from leaving. There was a struggle as she tried to protect herself from him, and he fell down a flight of stairs. After giving the address, the dispatcher told her someone would be there shortly.

She packed an extra suitcase as she waited for the ambulance to come. She wasn't running anymore. Didn't have to take just the bare essentials. When help arrived she was at the top of the stairs, looking down at Josh, making sure she looked properly distraught and scared. Letting her impatience show would probably not win her any points when the inevitable enquiry began.

It was easier than she thought, though. She had imagined the police taking her to the station, making her give a statement, questioning everything she said twice.

But that didn't happen. She was gently pulled aside to talk to an officer there and give her version of what happened. After she had finished speaking, the officer with the clipboard nodded to her wrist – now swollen and red.

"Did that happen just now?"

She looked down at it, surprised. It wasn't even hurting. "Yes…he grabbed me before he fell."

The man nodded sympathetically. "Ok Ms. Chen. I don't want to keep you here any longer. This was obviously self-defense. Just do me a favor and write down a number where I can contact you in case we have any more questions later on."

"Thank you." She jotted her cell phone number down on the clipboard he extended, then went to gather her bags.

Pete was already waiting and ready to go by the time she got to his place. To be honest, he didn't really have to do much to get ready. She was all he wanted – what else did he need?

They drove to Vegas that night – selling the gaudy ring Josh had bought her along the way - and were married that night. The pawn shop had given them a good price for the oversized rock, and they spent their honeymoon in style.

Unsurprisingly enough, no one was there when Josh McGrath was hauled into the emergency room. No one stood by his side as the doctors took x-rays, consulted and argued over his charts. His agent sat in the waiting room, but never came in. She was interested in the final outcome – whether Josh McGrath would be up and performing in an economically secure timeframe. She didn't really care much about what happened in the in between stages.

No one was there with him when he woke up in the hospital for the first time.

No one was there as he first discovered that he couldn't move his legs. Or his arms.

He convinced himself that he was dreaming – that this was all just a terrible nightmare. After all, was there anything an extreme athlete feared more? Admonishing himself for not knowing dreams from reality, he forced himself to sleep.

He found out the next day that his worst nightmare had come true. The doctor's demeanor was cold and detached as he broke the news to Josh. The former sports star was paralyzed from the neck down. There was a very small chance that maybe one day he could regain partial use of his upper body, but he would never walk again. He stared blankly at the doctor as he gave the news and asked if he had any questions.

"All right then…" the man in the lab coat exchanged a look with the nurse by his side. "Do you have anyone you can call?"

"My agent. She should be here somewhere."

The doctor studied his shoes uneasily. "Ms. Parker left the hospital once she heard the results. She um…she left a note."

His reflex was to reach out and grab it from the man, but his body refused to obey. Fighting back the panic and nausea this made him feel, he barked "Read it to me".

The man cleared his throat, looking like he wished he could be anywhere in the world but there. "Josh: Sorry it didn't work out. I'll release a public statement."

Josh blinked. "That's it?"

"Yes…Look, I'm going to leave my colleague Mr. Hutchins here to brief you on your options. Whether you'd prefer home care or a nursing facility."

The doctor left the room more quickly than was polite, but Josh didn't notice. The nurse had begun to explain to him how he would be living the rest of his life.


	26. Chapter 26

Two decades and a trust fund later, a fat and balding man sat propped up in a public hospital bed watching the year's Del Oro Extreme.

The nurses hated this month of the year. They tried to turn the tv off, to stop him from yelling so loudly, or at least from using such foul language when he did, but they never had any success. The amount of rage Josh McGrath harbored towards every one of the young competitors never ebbed. If anything, it seemed to increase as he got older and more horrible, yelling to anyone who happened to be nearby that he had been the best. Could've beaten any of those guys without even trying.

They all knew who he had been. They didn't care. Sure, he had been the heartthrob of at least a few of the staff members when he had been in his prime, but that time had long passed. The cranky and impoverished man who now graced them with his presence was no longer THE Josh McGrath.

Josh had paid for home-care nurses his first few years after the accident, but paying someone to do absolutely everything for you 24 hours a day did not come cheap. Neither did that "verbal abuse" lawsuit his last nurse threw at him. This was his life now - sharing a room with a coma patient in a dingy hospital in a bad part of LA.

Today was the third day of the DOX. The head nurse had closed the door to his room as soon as she clocked in that morning. No one was up for hearing what would be several hours of insults and cursing being hurled towards the television.

As the DOX logo spun away, revealing the setting of the day's event, Josh remained quiet. It was not out of respect, or a particular interest for what the man on the screen was saying; the more he knew about the competitors, the more he could target the insults to their families, ethnicities, and any other detail that came in handy.

"Our last competitor this year was a bit of a curveball, to be honest," the man admitted as he addressed the woman back at the studio.

She nodded enthusiastically, blonde curls taking up her entire portion of the split screen. "Wasn't he though? The most talked-about member of this year's competition, and the world knows virtually nothing about him! That's why what I'm about to tell you is so exciting." She smiled teasingly, waiting for her co-host to prompt her.

"Well, go on then let's hear it!"

"I actually got to do an interview with his parents – they were hesitant to speak to us, but I finally convinced them!"

"That's great news, Shannon! If it's more than 10 seconds long, it's probably already more than we've ever heard about this guy so far!"

She laughed airily, the sound making Josh scowl. "All right then, check it out!"

The two chatting sportscasters were replaced by a close-up of Shannon, now outside in the sun, microphone held up in front of her. "Everyone's been dying to know about this new athlete who's come out of nowhere! Until now, all we've had is a name, but for the first time we have an exclusive interview with his very own parents! I am excited to have with me here, the family of our all-new top secret East Meets West star Jeff Costas-Chen!"

The former superstar in the hospital bed was not currently eating or drinking anything, but somehow he managed to choke nonetheless.

The camera panned out until the shot included a very nervous-looking Laura Chen and Pete Costas. It had been a while. They were both much older – of course they were. Wasn't he? Laura had put on some weight and Pete's hair was now peppered with white, but they looked…happy.

Shannon the reporter interrupted his thoughts with her bubble-gum voice. "Did you catch the reference? East meets West? Because you're Chinese and he's-"

Laura nodded, and even though it had been decades, Josh easily recognized that expression she made when she was forcing herself not to roll her eyes. Like when they had to go to dinners with people they both hated, before they'd go home and privately vent about how unbearable they were. How the mutual annoyance would turn to hysterics, until the two of them had laughed so hard all they could do was hold each other, gasping for breath, spare giggles still slipping out as they struggled to regain their calm. He felt a sharp pang in his chest.

_Stop it._

"It was a very good joke," Pete answered the reporter solemnly, and Josh watched the corner of Laura's mouth twitch a little. He couldn't see her right arm, but he would bet anything she had elbowed the man.

The reporter began speaking again, reviewing their son's accomplishments during the first two days of the event, how well-mannered he was, how much the fans loved him. He couldn't concentrate on any of the script she was going through. He couldn't look away from Laura's face. Couldn't help the way his heart skipped when he saw her smile again for the first time in twenty years. Couldn't stop hearing that carefree laugh of hers echo through his head. Couldn't block out the flood of memories that suddenly broke through the barriers he had put up throughout the years. Her greeting him at the end of the day. The way she'd always fall asleep on his shoulder when they watched tv together. The way she couldn't cook to save her life, but still tried every Sunday.

_Stop it_.

He shook himself, determined to clear his head so he could hear her response to whatever question she'd just been asked. "Jeff had shown an interest in extreme sports ever since he started school. He's always been a bit of a daredevil…It made him happy, and we've always let him pursue whatever he's interested in, but we didn't want him competing until he was an adult. We felt it was too much pressure to have on a kid, and that it would affect his development."

Pete cut in with a laugh. "But now he's all grown up and it's time he shows these guys what's been out there waiting for them."

Shannon chuckled, then shifted her face to a more serious look. "If you don't mind me asking, Ms. Chen…maybe a delicate subject here, but did your decision to keep Jeff out of competitions have anything to do with your past relationship with former sports star Josh McGrath?"

Pete held up a hand as if to interrupt the obviously awkward question, but Laura nodded firmly. "Yes."

The blonde made some casual remarks to diffuse the tension, then thanked the two for their time and wished Jeff the best. Josh wasn't listening. He was struggling to keep sight of Laura as she walked away into the crowd with Pete's arm around the shoulder. As people began to get between them and the camera. As he lost sight of her for two seconds. Then seven. Then twelve.

He wanted to yell at them to move. They didn't know how important this was. How important she had been to him. Still was.

Singing along with the radio on the way out of Del Oro. Planning their future over the off-balance kitchen table at their first apartment. Lighting all those candles when the power had gone out. The way she'd stand on her toes to kiss him. The smell of coffee coming from the kitchen mixed with the scent of her shampoo on the pillow next to him. Her inability to not smile in a photo. Her eyes.

Tears slid down his face. He couldn't wipe them away.


End file.
